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THOUGHTS, fcfc. 

ON THE 

ROMAN CATHOLIC CLERGY, RELIGION 

AND PEOPLE , 

IN 

IRELAND. 


[Price Four Shillings and Sixpence.] 








THOUGHTS 


ON THE 

CIVIL CONDITION 

AND 

I 

RELATIONS 

OF THE 

ROMAN CATHOLIC CLERGY, 
, RELIGION and PEOPLE, 

IN 

4 I 

IRELAND. 

/ 

/ 

By THEOBAU/M'KENNA. E«a. 

t) 

BARRISTER AT LAW. 


You have industriously destroyed all the opinions and prejudices; and, as 
far as in you lay, all the interests that support Government.— Burke. 


© 3 * 

9 3 . > 

' » > } 

E-ontion t" 

Printed for J. BUDD, Crown and Mitre, No. 100. Pall-Mall. 

Feb. 1805 , 






■> 


^ A q 

■ M 







r^o.v, Son, and Saylis, Printers, Gt, Queen Str.J 



THOUGHTS, 

&"c. Xc. 

4 


SECTION I. 


General and 


Introductory Views of the Subject . 


It appears to be universally admitted, that the Roman 
Catholic religion in Ireland requires some arrangements 
different from what have hitherto existed, and,.in the 
general attention which recent circumstances have pro¬ 
cured for the affairs of this country, it will perhaps not 
be found unacceptable or useless, to offer a few details 
on that interesting subject of political economy. That 
form of Christian discipline is administered in Ireland to 
about four-fifths ofhthe population, by a body of Clergy¬ 
men, who have preserved, in regular succession, the 
orders of their hierarchy ; who have no connexion with 
the government, and not* a great deal with the property, 
of the country. The merits of this order certainly 
deserve the highest praise ; it is virtue without any 
auxiliary. I respect these qualities very highly; but I 
cannot avoid a reflection, that the superstructure of our 
national settlement would rest on a basis more certain 
and more solid, if such important functionaries per¬ 
ceived themselves to be embarked in the same cause a d 
bottom with the state, and participating in tine same 

b dangers 




dangers and alarms. Allowing the greatest possible la 
titucle for an acute sense of duty, and a zealous discharge 
of it, this still is but an impulse ; and, where so many 
are to concur, it is difficult not to suppose cases of re¬ 
laxation or of total failure. There is no incentive to give 
the feelings of the individual a direction, corresponding 
with the public good or with his own moral obligations. 
The adherents of the Roman Catholic religion count 
among them some of the most respectable names in the 
island, a few survivors from the ruin that befel our 
ancient gentry and nobility ; the number is yet more con¬ 
siderable of those, who since the relaxation in 1778? 
have invested their money in land, or risen to fortune 
with the ordinary prosperity of the country. Of the 
substantial class, whose industry produces from 50l. to 
5001. per year, I compute the relative proportion to 
stand thus :— To the north of Drogheda,* a very de¬ 
cided majority are of the Protestant, or rather of the 
Presbyterian, discipline. From that city, in one direction 
to the Barrow, and in another to the Shannon, there are 

in 

. * / 

* This is more exactly the case to the north of the river Ban. Between 
that river and Drogheda there is considerably more of a Roman Catholic 
yeomanry. 

I shall again recur to this division—it appears to me to correspond more 
exactly with, and to describe more truly, the difference of occupation, 
manners, and religion, than the usual distribution into provinces. The 
first, or northern district, is the principal seat of the linen manufacture. 
The second, or centrabdistrict, is influenced by the vicinity of Dublin; 
both the capital and labouring hands are directed to the supply of the 
metropolis ; the lands are principally occupied with cattle. In the third, 
or Munster district, is the great growth of corn for domestic use and expor¬ 
tation. There are some advances to the linen manufacture in Connaught, 
but pasture is the great employment of that district. There is more of a 
Protestant peasantry in Leitrim and Sligo, than in any other part of Con¬ 
naught or in Munster. I class with Munster a considerable part of Leinster, 
on account of the uniformity of pursuits and manners. 


3 


n the middle class, about three Catholics to two Protes¬ 
tants. From the left bank of the Shannon to the Bar- 

* i 

row, the former are probably five to two. The re¬ 
mainder of Ireland is Connaught, enclosed by the Shan¬ 
non ; through the greater part of it, the Catholics, in 
the well-circumstanced condition of life, predominate 
still more considerably. The mere labouring peasantry 
are, in the two latter districts, almost to a man, Catho¬ 
lics ; in the second, they arc probably as seven, and in 
the first, as about three to one. Where Protestant colo¬ 
nies have been settled, they remain ; but for the most 
part this portion of the population has formed towns, 
or repaired to such as were contiguous. Those who did 
not profit of the advantage, which, down to the year 
177S, the law conferred upon them, and advance them¬ 
selves to easy circumstances by means of their monopoly, 
have rather practised the occupations that are used in 
towns, leaving the more laborious, although ultimately 
the more profitable, operations of agriculture to the 
Catholics. 

But still, with the exception of a very few in the 
Northern district, the Roman Catholics retain in the 
towns a large majority of the gross population. Or the 
inferior people they may be about two to one ; the pro¬ 
portions are rather equal in the middle rank. The 
superior department of commerce was more conducted 
by Catholics thirty years ago than it is at present; they 
have lost at that side, a good part of what they gained 
in the class of country gentlemen. I attribute this va- 
riation, first, to a very natural impulse :—after having 
been debarred for near eighty years from permanent 
acquisitions in land, when the restraint was removed, 
such Catholics as had the command of money ran upon 
that species of property with very great avidity. Some 

b 2 strangers, 


4 


strangers, whom the encreased commercial opportuni¬ 
ties of Ireland attracted, in these latter times, from tlie 
other parts of tiie empire, of course were Protestants. 
Thirdly, commerce has not prospered for a length of 
time in Catholic houses ; they have but recently disused 
the practice of giving to their youth a foreign education 
in countries and among persons, with whom commerce 
was not in estimation. Their early habits were formed 
upon the example of the military nobility of France, or 
of the opulent Roman Catholic aristocracy of England. 

The Catholics must also have declined as traders, 
from their inability to diversify professions, according to 
the inclinations or aptitude of their children ; he, who 

s 

was very well calculated to appear with advantage in the 
department of the law or in military life, might be defi¬ 
cient in many requisites for superintending the employ¬ 
ment of a capital ; where all were necessarily huddled to¬ 
gether in the same pursuit, the insufficiency of one 
tended to render the talents of the other neffectual. It 
■ is astonishing how frequent has been the decline of com¬ 
mercial houses of this description, and how few of them 
have long survived their original founder. 

Dr. Duigenan concluded, from the returns of persons 
admitted into the House of Industry in Dublin, that three 
to one forms the relative proportion of Catholics to the 
other bodies ; but if the returns were even accurate, 
which I am disposed to doubt, they do not afford a proper 
ground on which to extend the inference “beyond the very 
spot from which the remark was collected. Dublin is 
more inhabited by Protestants of the lower class than any 
other part of Ireland, except two or three of the linen 
counties, and the resort thither is greater from the 
northern, than the other parts of Ireland. When a pea¬ 
sant of the south of Ireland is disposed to emigrate, he 

goes 


goes in preference by the ports of Cork or Waterford to 
England or to Newfoundland. It is a remarkable fact, 
that the Irish language is more currently spoken in Co- 
vent Garden market, than in any part of Leinster. Se¬ 
veral Protestants are brought here as servants ; several 
fix in this city, who have come from England and Scot¬ 
land, as artificers or soldiers. If similar establishments 
in Cork or Waterford were inspected, they would proba¬ 
bly not present a return of one Protestant in twenty, and 
if at Galway, not perhaps one in seventy; besides I am 
informed, that the paupers admitted into the House of 
Industry in Dublin, frequently declare themselves Pro¬ 
testants, in the expectation that they trill therefore be 
more favourably considered by the petty officers of the 
establishment. It is very probable, that a beggar might 
employ this artifice, and that the persons placed in the 
inferior departments of the house, may be capable of 
that weakness; they are taken from an uneducated class, 
in which such prejudices are likely to be prevalent. 
But, if it even were true, that the relative proportions 
arc as three to one, it is yet a very strong case for inter¬ 
ference. The same gentleman avers that the mass of the 
Catholics are indigent, and he grounds his opinion upon 
two facts: that they possess but a moderate proportion 
of estates in land, and of the stock of the bank of Ire¬ 
land, In the former instance he is accurate as to the first 
proprietor of the soil, but he suppresses the multitude ot 
derivative interests, which constitute the bulk ot pro¬ 
perty held by persons who reside in Ireland ; and he 
makes no account of the capital which the manufacture 
of land engages ; he seems to consider the head landlord 
to be the sole usufructuary. Again, in the instance of 
bank stock, a vast number of men may, and actually do, 
employ a middling capital in some species of industry, 

although 


i 


6 


although few of them arrive at such superfluity as renders 
it desirable to place their money in a fund, which is not 
assisted by their exertions. The persons who make this 
disposition of their property, are professional men, or 
persons in office, having no other means of rendering that 
superfluity productive. If the assertion mean any thing 
it must be designed to insinuate, that the Catholics con¬ 
stitute no part of the solid and deliberative public mind of 
the country, whose judgment is respected in a govern¬ 
ment like ours, and whose good will deserves to be con¬ 
ciliated. But this is exactly the reverse of truth,* and 
the author of the assertion attempted a very serious im¬ 
position on those to whom he addressed his instruction. 
The value of a million in five hands gives the idea of dig- 

O O 


nity and honour, but half the amount, distributed among 
one hundred persons, furnishing to each the means of in¬ 
dependence, and affording leisure for reflexion, consti¬ 
tutes infinitely more of the public feeling and sentiment. 
The statesman will probably attend to the judgment of 
the one description ; but he will guide the inclinations, 
and anticipate the wishes of the other. Perhaps it was the 
utter disregard of this class of men for many years, which 
threw Ireland into disorder, and the vigilance, exerted in 
studying and accommodating the same description, which, 
under Mr. Pitt’s administration, rendered government in 
England popular and efficient. There is some political 
application in the miser’s adage, “ take care of your shil¬ 
lings and pence, and tiie pounds will take care of them¬ 
selves.” Asa matter of boast or of reproach, these discus¬ 
sions are perfectly contemptible. I am ready to admit to 


whoever 


* Those, who desire to learn the extent of Roman Catholic property, 
should consult the fairs and markets of three provinces, of which the trans¬ 
actions arc principally managed with that property. 


/ 


7 


whoever challenges the concession, that, if the Catholics 
were to be considered a distinct and hostile people, they 
are not in a condition to contend with the British Go¬ 
vernment. If that power could possibly abuse its 
situation, it might undoubtedly subdivide it's subjects, 
depress any particular portion of them, and combat 
others, should they prove refractory, with their o\yn 
resources. But tiiis is not the view in which the matter 
is to be regarded—as a great portion of the population, 
the Catholics of Ireland are an object of fostering care, 
and in no sense is that care more imperiously demanded, 
or the exercise of it more laudable, than when 3*011 en¬ 
deavour to facilitate to them the advantages, and enforce 
the moral restraints of Christianity. Taken as an es¬ 
sential, and extensive part of the divided opulence and 
producing interest of the community, of those who 

r 

create and who supply wants, who pa}* taxes and make 
the land fruitful, they are entitled to every attention 
which in any country the provident legislator and states., 
man bestows 011 these conditions. In order to form a 
more just criterion of the situation of the Roman Ca¬ 
tholics,* than that which Dr. Duigenan laid down, I 
shall state this fact:—the persons of that religion, in our 
metropolis, support about twenty-five establishments for 
the education of poor children, and collect among them¬ 
selves about 11,0001. annually, for that purpose, f 

The reformation received, in Ireland, a parliamentary 
sanction early in the reign of Elizabeth, but never was 
able to procure the concurrence of the people ; it was 

fol- 

* Lord Sheffield rendered this assertion more respectable by having also 
introduced it in his work on the trade of Ireland. 

L An instance has just come to my knowledge, where 900b were col¬ 
lected in a very few days, among the Roman Catholic inhabitants of a 
co ntry town, for rebuilding the parish chapel. 


\ 


8 


followed solely the several colonies, successively plant¬ 
ed in "that and the ensuing century. The statute au¬ 
thorizing the change of liturgy was frequently alleged 
to have been clandestinely enacted, and was said to have 
lain dormant'for near forty years, when it was enforced 
by the deputy Lord Chichester ; such a fact is, indeed, 
very consistent with the little attention then paid to the 
proceedings of Parliament. That the alteration was 
obstinately resisted, will pass, with one party, as evidence 
of fortitude and discrimination ; will be stigmatized by 
the other, as dull and blind, or perverse infatuation. 
Here it will be the peculiar blessing, and there the re¬ 
probation, of Providence. I can see in the matter enough 
of ordinary and human machinery, to raise my eyes no 
further, and refer the course that things have taken, to 
accident, the complexion of government, and the private 
views and conduct of occasional rulers. The country 
had been too much agitated to allow leisure for specula¬ 
tion ; the way was not prepared for a variance of im¬ 
pressions, and the attempt seemed profanation. If 
O’Neil and the Irish chiefs of that age had been judL 
ciously managed, it is probable that they would have 
acceded to the fashion of the time, and the desire of their 
sovereign ; in that leader, religion appears to have been 
rather a colour than a principle of action ; like ali other 
malcontents, when private disgusts had instigated him 
to violence, he had no objection to sanctify bis banners 
with this plausible and popular recommendation. Lord 
Strafford conceived the design of introducing uniformity, 
and made some progress in the execution of it : But the 
stern character of that nobleman was not adapted to 
persuade; and command, his more usual and favourite 
expedient, has rendered every similar enterprize imprac¬ 
ticable. The inquisition alter defective titles, which he 

pursued 


9 


* 


pursued with overbearing rigour, alienated the possessors 
of property, and consequently their dependents, and 
rendered insecure the tenure of every rood of land in 
the kingdom. Historians gravely and calmly represent 
this expedient, as a means of reform, andean ordinary 
resource of revenue. It was a system of universal quib¬ 
bling, equally oppressive, impolitic, and iniquitous, which 
no mind tinctured with a sense of right can forbear to re¬ 
probate. The uncertainty of property retarded the usual 
tendency to improvement in arts and manners, and this 
backwardness was offered as a reason for forcible dipos- 
sessions, for a change of proprietors, and a new intermix¬ 
ture of inhabitants. The management of administration 
by Lord Strafford was one great cause of the rebellion of 
1641 ; if he had continued to govern, his energy would 
have prevented the ill effects of his misconceptions ; and 
as his intentions were upright, and integrity the basis of 
his character, he would have laid, in his own way, the 
ground of a durable settlement. His successors were at 
once fraudulent and feeble, improvident, careless, and 
tyrannical. It required a character like Lord Strafford, 
bold, able, enterprizing, and head-strong, to scatter 
widely the germs of discontent, and such men as his 
successors to ripen those seeds to inauspicious maturity. 
Even the virtues of that nobleman promoted the catas¬ 
trophe, of which, contrary to all his intentions and prin¬ 
ciples, he was an essential instrument. Conscious of 
good intentions, he was inflexible in what he imagined 
right—the end proposed reconciled him, most unwar¬ 
rantably, to the means which he adopted. I allude 
here entirely to Lord Strafford’s attack on property, or 
rather to the extraordinary vigour which he employed, 
in promoting this enterprize, which had been commenced 
before him. If instead of forming new plantations, lie 

c . had 


10 


Lad applied the same talents and the same power tiff 
secure and quiet former possessions, he would have given 
an utterly different face to Ireland; he would have 
averted the great convulsion that took place on this side, 
and lie would probably have prevented on theVthcr, 
the embarrassments of the crown, and the subversion 
of royal authority ; for the disturbances of Ireland fur" 
nished, at once, to the republican party in England, 
a means of arming against the king, and an opportunity 
to raise him enemies, by the calumnies which the ill- 
affected were enabled, with some appearance of truth, 
to circulate. 

During that period, when the change of religion was 
agitated, and whilst it was perhaps possible to be accom¬ 
plished, from the reign of Elizabeth to the conclusion of 
the civil war, there was a considerable influx of adventur¬ 
ers to Ireland } they came in quest of fortune, and neither 
their destination, nor the means they pursued to realize 
their object, were calculated to endear them to the old 
inhabitants. The very introduction of these strangers 
must of itself have been invidious ; they were brought 
with superior advantages of encouragement and accom¬ 
modation, to partake in the possessions of lands, which 
another race of men had enjoyed immemorially. The 
illiterate of any, but especially of that age, were not 
likely to enter into the legal niceties which justify a 
transfer of title ; they viewed the transaction as an act 
of partiality and violence, rendered no doubt more ob¬ 
noxious by instances of fraud in the superintendants. 
The abuse of power may be inferred without much ha¬ 
zard, or without any great research or sagacity, from 
the stateof things which at that time prevailed in Ire¬ 
land. Authority was in general discretionary ; it was 
entrusted to many ; it was exercised at a distance from 

inspection 


11 


inspection and control; exercised too by men, who 
heartily despised the nation they were deputed to act 
over. Would the new settlers, who were destined to 
edify and correct us, condescend to soothe and conciliate? 
Assuredly not, at least not to any general extent. They 
valued themselves too highly on the superiority of power, 
which they actually felt, and the civil and spiritual 
pre -eminence, which full as confidently they ascribed to 
themselves. Neither the members of government, nor 
the. inferior colonists of the day, could under these cir¬ 
cumstances have been cordially received ; and the re¬ 
ligion which they attempted to introduce, and of which 
they set the example, shared in their unpopularity. I 
do not recollect any Irish divine, who was distinguished 
at that period; I therefore presume, that Usher, Bram- 
hall, and some other eminent Protestant ecclesiastics, 
were superior in accomplishments to their Roman Catholic 
contemporaries; blit the latter description appears to have 
had every possible advantage over those inferior clergy¬ 
men, who officiated under the new establishment. On 
the one side were strangers, who desired to derive the 
utmost advantage from the preferments by which they 
had been attracted: on the other were natives, who as 
a merit and a cause of compassion, could allege, that 
their benefices were with-held, and who still exercised 
their functions among their friends and kindred. Per¬ 
haps, finally, no circumstance was more decisive in 
preventing a change of sentiment than this, that the 
lands which, by the suppression of monasteries, devolved 
to the crown, were granted out to persons without in¬ 
fluence or consideration in the country. 

By the management of the Irish administration, and 
the intemperance of the English parliament, in the year 

c 2 1641, 


12 


1641, a loose conspiracy and partial insurrection were 
magnified into a national and religious contest. So 
indissolubly were these two characters blended, and so 


• firmly were they fixed upon the dissensions of this 
country, as to render it ever after an arduous task to 

c/ * 

disunite them. There was a point of honour in not 
deserting a cause, for which so many suffered ; it was 
disgraceful by any sacrifice to compliment a ruthless 
and implacable enemy ; for such the Puritans appeared 
to be whilst they prosecuted the war, and after its con¬ 
clusion. No diminution of numbers has ever been 
experienced by a party, who could boast so many 
sufferers, as the event of that conflict left among the 
Irish Catholics. 

When Cromwell arrived in Ireland, he found the 
clergy and gentry split into distinct factions, the people 
exhausted by the suspension of industry, and the ex¬ 
pense, (unassisted by foreign intercourse,) of their own 
army and government. The nation fell an easy, unre¬ 
sisting prey to his arms, and he made them experience 
whatever is most severe, in the dismal denunciation of a 
victor’s resentment. Fortune was wrested, life and feel¬ 
ing sported with, on the mere delinquency of the victim’s 
religion. The most cruel trial still remained, and that 
which was most calculated to render the differences ir¬ 
remediable; neither the devotion of the Catholics to the 
royal cause, their personal sacrifices and acknowleged 
service to the king during his misfortunes, nor the enmity 
of the regicides, availed that unfortunate people after 
the restoration. By the indolence of Charles, the in¬ 
trigues of his ministers, the policy of Clarendon, and 
coldness of the Duke of Ormond, the sweeping proscrip¬ 
tion of the usurping power was confirmed, and the Irish 


proprietors, 



. i 


13 


\ 


proprietors prevented * from rcassuming their inheri¬ 
tances. In this part of the empire alone, rebellion was 
Animadverted on ; and they who received the spoils, 
were criminals tenfold more atrocious and culpable, than 
the sufferers upon whom the penalty was inflicted. Some 
circumstances of the history of that time, and which ap_ 
pear to me to he not without advantage, as a lesson to 
our own age, serve to explain the conduct of the Duke of 
Ormond, and possibly of Lord Clarendon. 

During the course of the civil war, this country had 
the misfortune to be visited by an Italian prelate, in¬ 
vested with the jurisdiction and function of Papal Nuncio, 
but not in any respect controlled by the civil authority. 
An assembly, composed of the principal nobility and 
gentry, directed the concerns of the armed confederates, 
«md since the credit of Parsons and Boila.ee, the national 

enemies, 

* I am aware, that many of my countrymen are extremely irascible on 
this subject, but as I am perfectly convinced, that it is now reduced to a 
mere historical fact, without influence or consequences as to the present 
time, I shall not refrain from referring to the great change of property 
during the usurpation ; and this being the point, from which our present 
settlement originates, I shall have occasion more than once to recur to it. 
I have before me, at this moment, a list of'the assembly who sate at Kil¬ 
kenny, and governed the Irish confederates. I could demonstrate, that five- 
sixths of the families are extinct, and of the remainder, nine out of ten 
have conformed and enjoy ail the partiality of the state, or else have, as 
Catholics, acquired, under the act of settlement, properties which they 
would not change for the chance of reassumption, if such a thing were in any 
degree practicable. 

I have treated of the act 6f settlement pretty much as i-t was con¬ 
sidered by Lord Chief Justice Kcatinge, in the argument which he presented 
to King James against the repeal of it. The act was at that time but twenty, 
five years in existence. The Chief Justice gives up the original justice of 
the statute, but urges with unanswerable force of reasoning, that the rule of 
law which had been enforced for such a length of time, and under which 
purchases, settlements, and ever^ species of transaction had been negociated, 
ought to be esteemed, and maintained, immutable. 


enemies, declined—that body was much disposed to re- 
turn to their obedience, under the Earl of Ormond’s 
mediation. The sway of the assembly over the people 
was hitherto undisturbed; it consisted of the natural 
leaders of the country, and the clergy were as yet sub¬ 
ordinate. The court of Rome permitted the supreme 
council to nominate to the ecclesiastical dignities, and the 
choice was judiciously directed to temperate and discreet 
clergymen, of principles favourable to the civil authority. 
So far nothing was uttered of a war for the temporal in¬ 
terests of the church, or of high and inconvenient ec¬ 
clesiastical pretensions. The rash and domineering 
nuncio changed the face of affairs; he arrogated to him¬ 
self the nomination to benefices, and promoted those fierce 
and fiery zealots, who had imbibed the highest notions of 
papal and clerical prerogatives. When Rinuncini had 
formed the clergy to a dependance on himself, he pro¬ 
ceeded through their means to act upon the inconsiderate 
people ; he was seconded by the fanaticism to which 
times of tumult are prone, by the deference paid to the 
minister of the Pope, and the respect of the people for 
the chiefs of a religion, under the banners of which they 
had been compelled, for self-preservation, to associate* 
He was able to frustrate the pacificatory projects of Lord 
Ormond, of the Roman Catholic aristocracy and gentry, 
and of a great and respectable portion of the secular 
clergy. Lie protracted the conflict, beyond the means 
and resources of the country, until the re-establishment 
of royal authority became desperate. In fact, to the- 
ambition of this atrocious prelate, and the crime of the 
zealots who adhered to him, the subsequent calamities of 
the Irish were to be attributed. He prepared the way for 
the regicides, and procured a victory for them, on their 
part altogether bloodless. 


I have 


Vj 


T have fully and fairly stated this fact. The deduc¬ 
tion 1 should be inclined to make from it, would be dif¬ 
ferent from that, which directed the proceedings of the 
statesmen I have mentioned, and of our succeeding legis¬ 
lators. Grant, that the Church of Rome affords to its 
clergy facilities for influence—was it then wise to remove 
every restraint, to take away from that clergy every 
passion, pursuit, and interest, except what, through the 
medium of its influence alone, were to be pursued or 

gratified ? If the credit of the clergy was abused and 

► 

was exorbitant, the possession of property inspires senti¬ 
ments of independence, to which the state ought to have 
directed its attention. The landed gentry, whom the 
people reverenced, were the exact counterpoise to the 
church, and the ruin of that interest left the ecclesiastics 
without an antagonist. Even at this day, if any thing be 
apprehended from the ascendant of the Catholic clergy, 
the means, by which it is to be reduced and kept within 
reasonable bounds, are, to encourage that eminence 
among the laity, landed, mercantile, or professional, 
which powerfully tends to independence; a contrary 
policy seems to have been relied on. 

It was perfectly in course that the nuncio should have 
found bigotry, where the imbecility of the ruling powers 
permitted him to call it ^nto action and reward it. The 
like means would, in any society or country, be produc¬ 
tive of the same consequences. Take the most en¬ 
lightened age and people upon earth ; the character o t 
philosophy will not predominate, if folly alone be fos- 
• tered. It was identically the same nation, but different¬ 
ly circumstanced, which elevated fenelon, Rossuet, 
Robespierre, and Marat. It was the same religion 
which Dr. Blair and Dr. Robertson administered with 
dignity and decorum, and which had been an instru¬ 
ment 


16 


ment of sedition or fanaticism in the hands of Knox and 
Peters. In the very age we hold in contemplation, the 
influence of the clerical teachers, in the reformed 
churches of England and Scotland, had been to the full 
as extensive, as much abused, and as formidable as what 
the nuncio exerted over the Catholics of Ireland. The? 
popular preachers moved the people as they thought pro¬ 
per ; in Irel&nd nearly the same circumstance occurred, 
but with considerable opposition from a great portion of 
the laity, and the most prudent and considerate of the 
clergy. If an hostile mind has been preserved in Ireland 
towards the established government, some cause must 
be sought for that disposition. I ascribe it to these cir¬ 
cumstances : the clergy were deprived of all hope of 
temporal consideration and advantage ;—the growth of 
opulence among the laity was checked, and those who 
surmounted the difficulties, or escaped the proscription, 
were prevented from becoming respectable. The mis¬ 
chief broke forth at a particular period, possibly from 
the collision of two principles, the departure from an old 
one, without yielding sufficiently to the new. But I 
shall have occasion hereafter to enter more extensively 
upon this subject. 

I do not think it an unprofitable investigation, when 
the occasion offers, to search amongst lofty and plausible 
pretensions, for the little sordid or selfish design, which 
scarcely ever fails to lurk at bottom, and which is the 
tme spring or action, where the other is merely colour¬ 
able. All was not bigotry in the part of the clergy._It 

was espoused by very few men of fortune. The property 
of the nation made a mm and zealous stand on the other 
side, and the opposition of this body would have proved 
effectual if the viceroy, fettered by consideration for the 
English Puritans, had not with-held the support of regular 

authority. 


. *\ 


17 


Authority. The partisans of Rinuncini were indigent per¬ 
sons, either the crowd who preferred the violent courses to 
which they had now been long habituated, to any settle¬ 
ment whatsoever ; or the descendants of families formerly 
dispossessed, to whom peace, affording no prospect of 
compensation, was not desirable, and who rejoiced in 
the name of religion as a pretence for warfare. The in¬ 
cidents, that took place daring the Nuncio’s sway in Ire¬ 
land, afforded, in truth, a decisive warning against the 
policy and proceedings which the Duke permitted, and 
which were afterwards more strenuously followed up by 
the popery laws, and all the incidents of that system. 
The principal adherents of that prelate were men of high 
pretensions and desperate circumstances ; by dispossess¬ 
ing the Catholic proprietors, and keeping that body 
afterwards in a state of depression, the number of such 
persons was, beyond all measure, augmented. When 
the concerns of the Roman Catholic gentry were aban¬ 
doned by the court of Charles II. on account of the tur¬ 
bulence and credit of the Nuncio, that order was punished 
for an evil against which it strenuously, but unsuccess¬ 
fully contended. If the measure adopted were vindic¬ 
tive, it was not fairly applied—if precautionary, it was 
founded in the most palpable misapprehension. I con¬ 
sider this proceeding to have, in fact, fixed irreconcil¬ 
ably the difference of religion between the government 
and the people. The Act of Settlement was in that re¬ 
spect, as well as in apportioning the territory, an uti 
■ possidetis . Every man who lost his estate, or whose 
pretensions were in any respect frustrated, was con¬ 
cerned to impute the occasion to religion—he had every 
possible motive to preserve that tye of sympathy and 
suffering, which dignified and consoled his misfortune. 
Accordingly, we find before the civil war, that some 

d irre- 


IS 


irreproachable clergymen, and the heads of the houses oi 
Kildare, Ormond, Thomond, Inchiquin, and Roscommon, 
passed to the establishment ;—during the reign o> 
Charles II. there was no considerable conformity what¬ 
ever. 

Lord Ormond, before the circumstance I have men¬ 
tioned, made no exertions against the Catholic religion ; 
he became a Protestant by the accident of having been 
early a ward of the crown, and, pursuant to the practice 
of the age, educated away from his family, in the religion 
of the government. He seems to have embraced the 
sentiments impressed upon him with earnestness and 
sincerity ; but he was altogether disposed to leave un¬ 
molested the society he had relinquished, and which, 
indeed, included his nearest relatives, and generally his 
kindred and dependants. In the early part of the dis¬ 
turbances he exerted himself to procure the protection 
of authority for the peaceable inhabitants, and to restrain 
arid counteract the bigotry of the lords justices, and bru¬ 
tality of their officers.* During the progress of the civil 
war, he saw the people duped and misled, the natural 
ascendant of a revered aristocracy supplanted, and the 
interests of the crown obstructed essentially. I have al¬ 
ready observed, that I consider his conclusions in this 
respect inaccurate ; but as we are not to expect that an 
actor or an eye witness should judge so calmly as we are 
enabled to do at this remote period, I cannot but allow,, 
that it was with considerable excuse he, after the restora¬ 
tion, manifested much political dislike to the professors of 
the Romish religion. He connived at^least, as we already' 

noticed, 

* Lord Ormond’s character seems to have been fairly marked by Bishop 
Burnet. He was not a man to give bad counsels, but he did not oppose the. 
execution of when given by others. 


19 


noticed, at the violation of all justice, in barring the re¬ 
entry of the old proprietors, probably with the view to 
weaken the effect of an attachment, which he supposed 
to have been uniform, and knew to be formidable. I 
understand that in several of his grants, which still sub¬ 
sist, he caused a covenant to be introduced, obliging 
the tenant to exercise the protestant religion ; and his in¬ 
structions to the persons who conducted his business, are 
preserved by Carte, which direct, to wave his rights 
when they come in competition with the claims of English 
settlers. In one of his letters he boasts, <c that he had 
at one time reduced the Romish hierarchy to a very few 
prelates, of whom several were bedridden.”—But the oc¬ 
casion was past, pride and interest had been intimately 
mingled with religious impressions ;—the nation was di¬ 
vided, as Sir Wm. Petty testifies, “ into the vested and 
divested ; the Protestants generally sympathizing with 
the former, the Catholics with the latter.” If the court 
and councils of Charles II. had been more steady, and 
if they had patronised the proprietors against the ad¬ 
venturers at the restoration, the former would probably 
have been gained over, and with them the inferior mass 
of population. 

With the exception of those * who yielded to the 
inducements of fashion or interest, comparatively a very 
small proportion, the descendants of both English and 
aboriginal families, who were settled in Ireland at the 
accession of Elizabeth, continue to this day Roman Ca¬ 
tholics. The religion of the state had naturally the 
greatest attractions for the upper ranks, but the loss on 

d 2 . this 

* I make no account of the statutes of Anne or the charter-schools, as I 
consider the latter to have been utterly inoperative, and the former did not 
touch the population. I consider the effect of the popery laws to have been 
merely to turn the current of property into the other line. 


20 


this side was, in point of numbers, more than comperi- 
sated by the lapse of families to the popular discipline, 
who having been casually settled in parts of the kingdom, 
where all other persons of their own condition are of a dif- 
ferent religion, are led by the consequence of marriage, 
or even by their intercourse or habits, to adopt the forms 
that universally prevail in their vicinity. There are parts 
of Ireland as completely Catholic as any canton in Italy, 
The inhabitants of very extensive districts have no mate¬ 
rial intercourse with the members of any other sect. 
There are parishes in Connaught, in which a Protestant 
never was settled ; in that province, in Munster, and in 
parts of Leinster, the entire peasantry for the scope of 
sixty miles, are commonly Catho ics ; in these tracts, the 
churches remain frequently shut for want of a congrega¬ 
tion, or are opened only to such a scant} 7 assemblage as 
from six to twenty. 1 have been w ness to what is by no 
means a solitary or unusual circumstance, but w r hich may 
be met with on every Sunday in the year, in fifty diffe¬ 
rent places—a very neat parish church, in which the bell 
tolled for the usual time, w ithout at acting any individual 
beside the parson and his clerk, whilst at the distance of 
two hundred yards, above one thousand persons were as¬ 
sembled to hear mass, at a w r retched hovel, covered in 
part with straw, but so ruinous, that one in twenty of 
the congregation was not protected from the rain, under 
it. I mention these facts, to justify an assertion on which 
I must reason,— The Church establishment in Ireland does 
not satisfy the purposes of a national religion . It may be 
a meritorious system of doctrine, a commendable form of 
discipline, but it does not reach the mind or the feelings 
of the people ; you cannot guide the public sentiment of 
this country for either moral or political purposes, through 
the Protestant religion. We are frequently told, that 

the 


21 


the Protestants amount to a third or fourth part of the in¬ 
habitants of Ireland; but this mode of enumeration is 
calculated utterly to mislead a person, not conversant 
with the face of the country, and who proposes to draw 
an inference from it, for political management or regula- 
tion. Periiaps upon the entire scale of population, the 
Catholics are not above four to one of all the other reli¬ 
gions. But then of this non-Catholic fifth, the greatest 
portion is collected in a few counties of Ulster ; the re¬ 
mainder, if they be poor, dwell in the towns, where 
they are employed in handicraft occupations ; those of 
better condition live indeed in the open country, but 
placed aloof from the common people ; without inter¬ 
course of habits or familiarity, their casual residence can 
be of little avail in moulding dispositions, and forming a 
character. -This circumstance, that the Protestant poor 
reside in towns, and that the Catholic poor constitute the 
population of the open country, has been little attended 
to, but deserves the most serious notice, because it is con¬ 
clusive to this point,—although you should be successful 
in communicating a particular impulse to the lower 
Protestants, you cannot calculate on the probability of 
extending it by intermixture or example ; you must still 
cultivate and resort to the Catholic feeling ; so that, 
when we are to consider the means of modelling the 
peasantry of Ireland to a temper more congenial to the 
existing authorities, the effect of the Protestant religion 
must be in a great degree put from our consideration^ 
The value of it in that sense is generally not as one to one 
hundred. 

With this great proportion of our people, attachment 
to the Roman Catholic religion is, as religious feelings 
pever fail to be, a prepossession of superior and decisive 

influence ; 


influence ; but it is more; opposition and various local 
circumstances have matured it into a principle of action, 
extremely forcible, and widely diffused in its operation. 
The Irish adhere to the discipline of the Roman church, 
not as small knots or as scattered partisans, who may be 
formed, managed, or directed, by the example of their 
neighbours; but by classes unmixed ; by a spirit and 
by habits, which prevail without interruption over po¬ 
pulous and extensive districts. It is in the breast of an 
entire people, the combination of party, of patriotism, 
and of all the feelings, prejudices, and consolations, that 
constitute devotion. When the traditions of the coun¬ 
try commemorate any person as a good Irishman, they 
tell you also, that he was a steady Catholic. Among 
the most cruel and implacable hostilities ever waged, 
were those which, in the 17th century, repressed the 
insurrections of the Irish—never was any land afflicted 
with a more vexatious persecution, than the entire sys¬ 
tem by which priests were pursued, and popery discoun¬ 
tenanced, down to a few years after the accession of his 
present Majesty. In all these seasons of calamity, the 
clergy were the most eminent victims; and their suffer¬ 
ings had so much the appearance of devoted ness to the 
public good, they so strongly testified sincerity, that it 
is no wonder, a zeal thus disinterested, and thus earnest, 
should be rewarded on the part of the flock with great 
tenderness and veneration. Add to these particular mo¬ 
tives of affection, the general tendency of the human 
mind to receive impressions of religion, and the force, 
which such derive from education and from usacre. The 
Roman Catholic clergy have not always been the most 
learned or polished men ; but in their ministry they 
are indefatigable, in their general morals of irreproach¬ 
able demeanour, and peculiarly decorous in the practice 

of 


23 


oJl those virtues which they have connected with the 
sacerdotal character. The censorship of the bishops, 
and of the body of each diocese upon its own members, 
is usually very vigilant and rigid. A form of religion 
thus introduced, and thus supported, must necessarily 
have been popular. 

The state has thought it prudent to bestow its favour 
upon a different form of the Christian discipline. I am 
not disposed to arraign the propriety of this selection 
but I may enquire upon what grounds the government 
should decline to embrace within its protecting care 
another branch of the same common stock, equally ap¬ 
plicable to every social purpose, which it has found 
firmly rooted in the island, and sanctioned with all the 
influence of immemorial prescription. This adoption is* 
opposed by what to me indeed appears a most inconse¬ 
quent mode of reasoning : faults are alleged against the 
Roman Catholic religion, as if we were investigating the 
propriety of giving it admission into our country ; or as* 
if some rash or untried novelty were set afloat, which it 
were a speculation to forbear with. It may probably be 
right to resist alterations in matters of moment, and even 
dn trifles, to repress an innovating spirit; but between 
those cases and the instance before us, there is no reason¬ 
able parallel. I suppose no man will institute a com¬ 
parison between the religions exercised in our Indian 
empire, and any of the forms of Christianity; but be¬ 
cause we cannot make Christians of that people, ought 
we to suffer the religion which they are willing to prac¬ 
tice, 

*■ , r 

* To avoid cavil, I express here my opinion, which I shall subsequently 
enforce—that the Protestant establishment ought not to have been put upon 
the Irish, but that the actual state of things, and distribution of the country, 
require it to be upheld with the strictest inviolability. 


24 


tice, to be debased, or its sanctions to be weakened 
Should we refuse to employ it as a means of procuring 
bedience, and preserving tranquillity?—Should we 
suffer the very worst passions of the human mind to ex¬ 
tend their growth, and to predominate, by neglecting to 
check and counteract them, by the means which are 
within our reach, and which are easily applicable ?* The 
Iloman Catholic religion exists in Ireland to a very con¬ 
siderable extent; it cannot be dispossessed, and ought 
therefore to be regulated ; it has been adopted into the 
habits and usages of the nation. Without entering into 
the question, whether the people are right or wrong, we 
must pronounce, upon all the grounds which history and 
experience furnish, that it is not the best policy to con¬ 
tend, especially with a rude people, even for matters 
which influence the mind less powerfully than religion, 
and which having been rendered venerable by tradition, 
and familiarized by custom, they seem obstinately de¬ 
termined not to abandon. What would be the condi¬ 
tion of our British empire ? In what dissensions would 
it not be split ? And how complex will its management 
and economy be rendered, if no religious institution is 
to be countenanced or encouraged, unless the King and 
Parliament adopt it as orthodox ? There scarcely exists 
a similarity of profession or opinion, between any two 
members of the entire dominion ; but the subjects of 
the several divisions are not to be abandoned to chance, 

\ because 

* The great Frederick of Prussia did not consider the Roman Catholic 
system with any partiality, but^vhen required to expel the Jesuits from his 
dominions, he declined compliance ; his answer was—that he was satisfied 
with their manner of conducting a million and a half of his subjects, who 
were Roman Catholics, and that this concern was a matter of too much imr 
portance to make it a subject of experiment. 


\ 


because they do not happen to coincide with their su¬ 
perior. 

Amitting altogether the title of the present establish¬ 
ment to pre-eminence, upon principles of policy and 
convenience, and upon a view of the fitness of that pre¬ 
eminence to the actual circumstances of the country, we 
must recur to another fact, that this system is not alone 
sufficient to fulfil the purposes of a national religion. 
The dissent of a large proportion of the Irish people 
must be taken under consideration ; it is no light or 
capricious novelty, but an ancient and hereditary impres¬ 
sion, and therefore at least respectable. This predilec¬ 
tion has been put to the test of a very active discourage¬ 
ment ; perhaps the subjects of the experiment may have, 
in consequence, been rendered worse Christians, and 
worse Catholics ; but assuredly their original attachment 
has not been effaced, nor any bias created in favour of 
Protestantism. We have had the Church of Ireland by 
law proscribed, and the Church of Ireland by law esta¬ 
blished ; the one, unable from the prevailing disinclina¬ 
tion to its tenets ; the other, from the. difficulties under 
which it laboured, to cultivate the minds and morals of 
the people. Search among the calamities of Ireland for 
the effects of this conflict between the magistrate and 
the o-cnius of thefnation. It occasioned a want of cor- 
diality between the government and the subjects; — it 
produced an indifference in the people to the concerns 
of their rulers ; a generally unsettled habit of mind, and 
an aptitude for turbulence and innovation. In the more 
ancient disturbances of this island, as well as in modern 
times, the result and the mischiefs of this temper have 
been manifest. 

No man can controvert the position, that a national 
religion is an institution of the highest merit and pro- 

i e priety; 


26 


priety; but if your national religion, by any untoward 
circumstances, be prevented from extending its benefits 
to a material branch of your people, are you therefore to 
leave your provision incomplete ? Or should you not 
rather meet the exigencies of your peculiar case with an 
appropriate remedy ? If peace, order, and settlement, 
are to be introduced in Ireland, the people must be gra¬ 
tified in their habits and their predilections. In order 
to enjoy the advantages of Christianity in a degree of 
perfection, the state must take it on the terms, which the 
subjects can most rapidly be induced to close with ; it 
must permit the discipline and institutions of the Church 
of Home to the majority of the people ; nay, it must 
assist that people, by placing those favourite objects 
conveniently within their reach, and upholding the credit 
and consideration with which they are to be regarded. 
This matter is not to be discussed upon the merits of 
the several forms of religion. Theologians may dispute 
of tenets, the statesman is to act on other grounds ; he 
must manage the materials that are placed before him. 
It is not a question whether certain doctrines shall find 
admission within your precincts; but, what mode of 
treatment is to be adopted where these doctrines are in 
full vigour ? Are we to have this religion under the pa¬ 
tronage or in the defiance of the government? Will 
you have it in amity with the law, and assistant to the 
maintenance of society ? To the existence of Catholi¬ 
cism you indispensably must submit; the only matter of 
choice is, whether this Catholicism shall be derived and 
imitated from the most polished or the least enlightened 
parts ol Europe. Although the essential dogmas remain 
the same, there are an infinity of observances, which 
vary with very great difference of effect, upon the public. 
As the clergy are liberal by their habits, by their educa¬ 
tion* 


27 


tion, and by the place they hold in society ; as they are 
enabled to attend minutely to the duty of instruction, in 
the same degree will the religion they communicate be 
sober, sound and rational, exempt from the intemperance 
of fanaticism and the puerilities of ignoran e. 

Do I therefore suggest that it is a misapplication of 
the duties of government, to attend with a vigilant and 
earnest concern to the security of the church estab¬ 
lished ? By no means. That church is undoubtedly an 
essential member of the state ; public convenience has 
assigned to it a pre-eminence, which ought not to be 
violated. The balance of property, especially in land, 
has fallen into the hands of one description of Christians. 
Incidental to this advantage is the ‘enjoyment of the ec¬ 
clesiastical dignities and revenues; the state pa}'s this 
homage to the gospel, expediency directs the application. 
Clerical persons ate exalted, that they may reflect honour 
on the doctrines they recommend, and that men of 
every rank may fneet the votaries of religion among 
their equals. But whilst the Protestants fill the class of 
considerable proprietors, and the stations of consequence 
annexed to that condition, their clergy must enjoy a 
corresponding rank, or the institution fails in many of 
its moral effects and all its political utilities. It has 
been sometimes advanced, that the Catholic religion, in 
right of its majority of followers, was entitled to hold 
the advantages of the establishment. To me, that as¬ 
sertion appears to be an extreme mistatement of the fair 
rights and rational pretensions of the Catholic commu¬ 
nity. To provide for religion is a principal duty of the 
magistrate, but the means must be adapted to the end, 
and that provision must be according to the necessities 
of those for whom it is made, or it ceases to be effectual. 

e 2 Ido 


28 


Ido not applaud the means*, by which the ascendant 
in point of property was procured; but it exists, and 
ought to be upheld. So says ascertained law,—so says 
the wisdom of prescription—so says the principle of 
stability, without which the world neither knows har¬ 
mony, nor repose, nor happiness, nor improvement. 
Then, whilst I acquiesce in a title to enjoy, I cannot cavil 
at the incidents which accompany or are necessarily 
annexed to the possession. Discussing the Norman in¬ 
vasion, as an historical fact, we must censure the con¬ 
duct of William and of his followers ; we ;*re not 

* i 

therefore to dispute the municipal rights, which, origin 
nating in that event, have now become the sole rule of 
law, and are clothed with all the sanctity of justice. 

So of the transactions which took place in Ireland 
during the 17th century. The annals of the times in¬ 
form us, that towards the close of the 16th, and in,the 
course of the 17th centuries, the clergy of the Roman 
communion*, ministering to a contented people, were 
disturbed, in their possessions and jurisdiction, and 
finally evicted altogether. The rulers of the state con¬ 
ceived another form of religion to be more correct; 
whether their judgment was well or ill founded is im¬ 
material to the point of view in which we consider the 
subject. Did they endeavour to communicate their im¬ 
pressions ? Did they wait to carry their scheme into 
elfect, until it was adopted by any considerable portion 
of the people, or were any probable means employed 
to procure this popular countenance? 

The same record contains a negative to these en* 

O 

quiries, 

* The general confiscation and new arrangement of property by th« 
regicides, and the confirmation of those at the restoration by the act of 
settlement. 


\ 


29 

qu iries, and represents this incident as a gross outrage, 
cruel, impolitic, and unjust ; but it has given a shape 
to the country which is not at present to be altered ; it 
was the reprehensible basis of a very accurate order of 
things, and of an excellent settlement, which prescrip¬ 
tion has sanctioned. Political propriety has at this day 
placed justice on the other side. When this enterprise 
commenced, the property, as well as the population of 
Ireland, was Catholic; both these respectable masses of 
power patronised the hierarchy that was deposed, and 
resented its overthrow. Hue fonte dtrivata € lades. The 
calamities, bv which above all nations this island 
has been afflicted, may be attributed to that wanton 
exertion of authority ; incidentally it promoted, in no 
small degree, the disasters that befel the monarchy and 
the monarch. The temper of the age ran into these 
frenzies: a religious zeal, irrational, incoherent, and 
unmanageable, prevailed in Great-Britain, and Popery 
was pursued with more than the unsocial zeal, which is 
reproached to that discipline by its adversaries. The 
circumstances of the country are now essentially altered ; 
we are formed to another state, and to a different system 
of institutions. The vast majority of property is on the 
side of reformed episcopacy, and the wants pf the po¬ 
pulation may be much more effectually supplied, by 
alterations which were neither so violent nor so exten¬ 
sive. It were to imitate the faults and to invite the 
miseries of that dreadful sera, if we should turn our 
thoughts to a transfer of the church establishment; it 
were to inflict a similar violence upon conscience, upon 
the tempers of men, and upon habitual usages, and 
must prove alike subversive of all rules of right and 
expediency. Let us examine a little into the real state 
®f things, and the manner in which the population is 
M dis- 


30 


distributed, and we shall be led to a conclusion very 
favourable to the arrangements that exist, which were 
indeed not originally formed for the country, but to 
which the country at present is accommodated. The 
Catholic laity consists of private gentlemen, merchants, 
farmers, peasants, and mechanics ; rank and fortune 
prevail among the Protestants. The imposing dignity of 
religion is to be preserved among the latter ; the former 
require to be cultivated and consoled by an active mi¬ 
nistry, fervent and assiduous in its duties. It would be 
utterly out of proportion to bestow on these descriptions 
a hierarchy of lords and affluent dignitaries ; the in¬ 
tercourse of attentions which at present exists, and 

which is necessary, could no longer be expected. If 

» 

the pastors of the Catholic religion were advanced to 
the affluence of the establishment, they would cease to 
consider the estimation of humble men as their reward, 
and to place their dependancc upon character. You 
should still resort to new expedients, to procure what 
you have exactly at your hand at present, an order of 
energetic parish priests, neither too much refined, nor 
too much at ease, for the discharge of their laborious 
functions. Thus to vary the establishment in the present 
circumstances, would be to engage without any purpose 
in dangerous and perplexed courses—it would be an 
act unjust to the Protestants, and unprofitable to the 
Catholics. 

Zeal, or party spirit, would on every side whisper 
a different language. On the part of the church of 
England, these acrimonious antipathies may perhaps 
suggest, that by with-holding external support from the 
Catholic discipline, the attachment to that s}'stem will 
decline, and the people be drawn within the pale of the 
tnore favored religion. This inclination to advance that 

party 


31 


piirty we have espoused, without ever examining the 
result of our operations, is so very natural, and so very 
common, that, although I do not imitate, I shall not 
censure it. It would ill become me, whose judgment 
may be influenced by habits and education, to offer an 
opinion on the moral consequences of the change. I do 
not think it practicable, and 1 apprehend, that if the ac¬ 
tual bias of the people were to receive a different direc¬ 
tion, the consequence would not be the uniformity that is 
desirable, and that we suppose to be expected ; but, if 
uniformity still continue as much as ever to elude the 
pursuit of its votaries, I can perceive no good, and I can 
point out a very positive evil to be produced, by the 
introduction of any of the inferior sects, into the place 
now occupied by the Catholic religion. 

The habits of the Roman Catholic clergy are parti¬ 
cularly founded in the practice of obedience; the other 
sects, who might probably unite the characters of popular 
and subordinate, do not present equal facilities for ma¬ 
nagement. What a lever is episcopal authority ? Could 
you form one head for presbyterianism or methodism ? Could 
you compress all the irregularities, all the eccentricities, 
in practice and doctrine, which would arise in these so¬ 
cieties, if either of them were to prevail through the na¬ 
tion ? Could you place them under the control and pe¬ 
remptory jurisdiction of twenty-seven men, chosen if you 
please by yourselves, whom the head of the state may 
with ease direct for every reasonable purpose; whom 
you may hold in your hand, if you give them without re¬ 
serve the essentials of their religion, and if you do not 
seek to interfere with the limits that shall be established? 
But in truth, all this reasoning is superfluous, for the suc¬ 
cession of Romish ecclesiastics is by no means likely to 
fail, although their functions may be rendered more diffi¬ 
cult, 


52 


cult, and their composition deteriorated; and while their 
is a sufficient number of them in existence, to present to 
the'people the objects of their veneration, and the ob* 
scrvances to which they have been habituated, to them 
that people will recur; their minds are too strongly en¬ 
gaged; long disuse might perhaps obliterate the impres¬ 
sion—but here the inclination is kept ever alive and ac¬ 
tive, because the matters by which it is cherished arc ever 
at hand, and the resort to them and the means of gratifi¬ 
cation neither difficult nor distant. There is a fund of 
piety or of fervent attachment to their religion, among 
the middle, and lower Roman Catholics;* the extremes 
of this temper will, to the end of time, provide candi¬ 
dates for the priesthood, more especially if that prolific 
power, opposition, communicate its creative influence 
^ ’ to popular obstinac} T . The mitigation of the popery 

laws, and the encouragements to tillage have diffused 
considerable wealth in Ireland. A very substantial and 
widely extended yeomanry has been formed among the 
adherents of the Roman Catholic religion. They have 
the means of liberality to their pastors, and undoubtedly 
will share with them, "perhaps indeed more freely, for 
such is the vanity or perverseness of our nature, if they 
find these pastors discountenanced by the superior orders 
of society. The sex, whom tenderness, fervour, and 
strong attachments distinguish, will, from every rank 

co-operate 

* A strong proof of the prevalence of this disposition, is the number of 
Catholic books of devotion sold to those descriptions. I understand that the 
supply of this demand constitutes in our country towns, the principal branch 
of the bookselling business. 

I do not mean to insinuate, that there is not among the higher classes 
considerable earnestness of religion, but that they are not from their habits 
so likely to offer themselves for orders, nor so fit for a situation, which is not 
to aspire beyond medioefity. 


co-operate in rendering easy the condition of men, who 
apply themselves to one of the strongest, the most amia¬ 
ble, and commendable impressions. Thus, it does not 
follow, that because you incumber the priest with diffi¬ 
culties, you will extinguish the succession—No, the 
only consequence of that policy would be so to clog his 
ministry, that the public and the state shall derive from it 
no benefit. 

Most wisely has our government made one advance 
to an establishment, by adverting to the education of the 
Roman Catholic Clergy ; and there are those who cavil at 
the institution !—They do not consider (for intemperate 
fanaticism never reflects) that if they refused to have 
priests educated at their threshold, with the feelings and 
habits of their country, our very enemies would not cease 
to supply them. They would come to us, perhaps, from 
under the throne of Bonaparte. So again, you may, 
indeed, deprive yourself of the advantage of orderly and 
discreet clergymen, acting in the well regulated forms of 
episcopal gradation. In the present circumstances, the 
want of some fixed establishment will tend to produce that 
effect: but then the chasms will be filled from among 
those mendicants, whose institutions fit them for a preca¬ 
rious livelihood. Let the occasion be created, no question 
teachers will be found, who, rather than let the people 
out of their hands, will plunge them deeper than their 
simplicity or ignorance ever yet permitted them to go, in 
superstition or fanaticism ; and surely it is not in the body 
of any nation, that resistance to that process is to be en¬ 
countered. For myself, I would prefer, as the guides of 
my country, the decent, comfortable, parish priest, with 
his creditable bishop, possessing the feelings and respec¬ 
tability of a dignitary, rather than run the chance of, 
what at best must be a precarious casualty, conventual 

feelings 

O 


F 


u 


feelings and institutions ; men formed under foreign habits, 

4 

and accustomed to direct their views to various foreign, 
officers. Nothing, I repeat, could be worse imagined, 
than the practice of giving to this clergy a foreign educa¬ 
tion ; but the conduct of government has, in this respect, 
been of late so liberal and prudent, that I find it unneces¬ 
sary to enlarge upon the erroneous policy that formerly 
prevailed. A very munificent fund has been assigned by 
parliament under the patronage of the crown, and it 
must unquestionably be the fault of the persons at the 
head of the Roman Catholic religion in Ireland, if their 
clergy do not receive from thence a very adequate 
preparation for the ministry. But it seems to me that 
this very circumstance is an urgent reason to proceed 
further to the establishment of a regular provision. If, 
after a course of liberal institution in a well-endowed 
college, a man sees no prospect before him but mendi¬ 
city and meanness, he will certainly look out for other 
pursuits. The college, established by parliament, may 
raise scholars, instructors of youth, and chaplains in 
opulent families ; but missionaries it certainly will not 
produce, at least not in great abundance, unless per¬ 
sons of moderate zeal perceive some objects of prefer¬ 
ment to attract their attention. Now it certainly can 
be no part of the policy of government, to incur a very 
heavy national expense, which, so far from attaining 
any end of public good, is to prove subversive of its own 

The discouragement of the Catholic religion tends 
pnly to render it more and more unfit for our civil and 
social arrangements ; in no degree to remove it. But 
if the changed religion were to be effected, as easily 
as it may be wished for, l subscribe to the opinion of very 
eminent observers, that the mere doctrines, the cool 

habits^ 


object 


35 


habits, and unceremonious worship of reformed episco¬ 
pacy arc not likely to make proselytes of the Irish. 
The church of England may be very suitable to the 
calm devotion of a cultivated mind—It does not seem to 
possess a sufficient number of sensible objects to attract 
or to retain an ardent and unreflecting people, long ac¬ 
customed to have their feelings soothed, and to be ruled 
by their impressions. I recollect no instance cf a people, 
gained over by the clergy of an easy and well circum¬ 
stanced establishment, or passing by their own impulse, 
from a religion in which the senses were much, to 
another in which they are but little gratified. The in¬ 
dividual may be moved by his own considerations, but 
public bodies make no such measured revolution. Let 
us suppose it to be clear and ascertained, that reason 
stands precisely as the friends of the establishment re¬ 
present it; but is there any great certainty that the 
people will resort, where wisdom points the way, or in 
what instance does it appear, that the indiscriminate 
mass of mankind are directed by their reason ? The 
grand controversy which agitated this age seems to 
have been, whether in matters not touching us by 
what each individual considers a very close interest, 
we are guided by our reason or our impulse ; and 
the revolution of France has decided against the agency 
of wisdom ; so that granting the establishment to be 
as strongly fortified on that side, as its adherent can 
imagine, a favourable reception from a people not pre¬ 
pared or predisposed, is by no means more unequi¬ 
vocal. 

The members of opulent ecclesiastical corporations 
never have been proficients in the arts and manners 
that captivate the multitude; 1 may then presume, that 
the established clergy of Ireland do not constitute an 

F 2 ex- 


36 


exception. If a competition were instituted, they would 
be vanquished by the Methodists or Dissenters ; because 
those forms are more congenial to the temper of ordinary 
men ; and the teachers of them are more familiar with 
the practice of popular management. Now, in this 
case, the inconvenience of a double establishment is 
not removed ; the necessity still remains of gratifying, 
or providing for a second body of clergymen ; in 
that change there is no political benefit, and there is 
this mischief, that a transition so violent could scarcely 
be accomplished without unsettling the public mind, 
or producing some effervescence of fanactism, extremely 
dangerous to established order and authority. 

If uniformity is not to be procured by the alteration 
of religion, it cannot, in any view of public or political 
good, be found desirable to supplant one subordinate 
establishment by another ; but the measure will be % pro¬ 
bably attended by a violent ferment and a possibility of 
commotion, and thus the attempt becomes au imprudent 
enterprize. Let us take another view of the subject, 
and examine, how far the convenience of the Protestant 
clergy themselves is likely to be promoted, by sup¬ 
pressing the agency of their Roman Catholic fellow 
labourers. The Irish are much attached to certain at¬ 
tentions, which in fact are become characteristic ; for 
example, the}’ must in sickness be accommodated with 
the administration of religious rights, or they require 
on various occasions the practice of several ceremonies ; 
with these the people would not dispense, even under a 
variation of some religious customs; they would yet 
require to be gratified in their favourite observances; as 
the missionaries, who gained over to Christianity the 
ancient inhabitants of Europe, were often obliged to 
incorporate into their ritual, matters of innocent pre¬ 
judice 


I 


37 

judice and attachment, which it appeared frivolous to 
contest, and which had existed too long to be easily 
eradicated. The Protestant clergy have not been pre¬ 
pared for the intercourse which would be thus required 
from them; they have been fashioned and accustomed 
to different duties. When i say that if the task were 
imposed, it would in all probability not be executed, 

I merely draw a sketch of human nature, without re¬ 
flecting on the order, or the individuals. It is the con¬ 
dition and temper to which almost all men would be 
formed, or into which they would glide in like circum¬ 
stances. The most favourable event of such revolution 
would be, that the beneficed clerov should seek out 
for curates from the same condition and habits of life, 
which now supply the greater part of the Romish eccle¬ 
siastics. These men would be essentially what the for¬ 
mer are at present;—perhaps I shall be told that they 
would be better educated ; I cannot accede to that, as 
a necessary consequence—the means of education would 
not be augmented, and in the present state of tilings, 
every advantage, which can be bestowed by education, 
and every good which can result from a circumspect 
attention to that concern, may be equally expected* 
On the part of government, care and vigilance alone 
are requisite ; these would be just as incumbent, if a 
change were effected, and in the present state of things 
may be exerted, just as beneficially. Possess your¬ 
selves of the avenues to the human mind, and you 
may give what inclination you please to the puoiic 
sentiment. 

These considerations of mutual utility may serve to 
disarm the jealousies, which a system of rival establish¬ 
ments appears likely to generate among the respective 
ecclesiastical bodies, or their zealous votaries. If, which 

I verv 


I 


f* ^ 

3S 

I Very much doubt, it can be discovered, that in any part 
of Ireland the mass of the people have conformed to the 
establishment,—there, the second or subsidiary institution 
is rendered unnecessary. In the state of opinions or 
prejudices, if that expression pleases more, which I have 
described, and which indisputably prevails, whatever 
motives influence a state to interfere in maintaining, up¬ 
holding, and protecting a system of religion, these all 
exist with respect to the Roman Catholic church of 
Ireland. The Romish clergy are in truth, no more than 
curates to their brethren of the establishment; discharg¬ 
ing, without expense to their principals, duties, which, 
but for this interference, should have devolved upon the 
latter, and which they should either fulfil in person or 
pay for. On the other hand, the present Roman Ca¬ 
tholic pastors have no claim to the property that was 
once annexed to situations, nearly resembling those 
which they fill at present. There is no natural con¬ 
nexion between the clerical function, and either tythes, 
or any other species of rent or possession ; such union at 
one time subsisted with respect to a body of Catholic 
dignitaries j but it has been dissolved; the law, which 
confirmed or conferred the advantage, has withdrawn it; 
the individuals of this day have sustained no loss or 
injury ; they have suffered no privation ; they embarked 
in their present state of life without any prospect of this 
remuneration, and the reward upon which they did cal¬ 
culate, being unexpectedly augmented, they have still 
less reason to regret, that benefices, which would have 
never fallen to their own lot, are the property of de¬ 
serving persons of another communion.—-If the establish¬ 
ment were Roman Catholic, men of rank and influence 
would be attracted into the church, and would attain its 
preferments. The actual parish priests would still be 

the 


39 


\ 

the inferior clergy; their provision would not be more 
liberal, neither would the application of the endowments 
be probably so exemplary as at present. The church of 
Rome imposes on her ministers certain reserves, with 
which the superior orders of society do not readily or 
universally comply ; and we know from experience, that 
in Roman Catholic countries, whilst the general conduct 
of the lower clergy was in a very eminent degree laudable 
and virtuous, their dignified brethren presented frequent 
instances of dissipation and immorality.—Self denial is 
not the virtue of affluence, and there is not much to be 
gained bv tempting men to the profession, who would 
inevitably decline the practice. The church of Ireland 
is rich, and its wealth was never applied to better pur¬ 
poses than those domestic ones, on which it is at this day 
expended. These who deny the divine mission of the 
actual possessors, will at least allow them to be high in 
accomplishments, excellent in example, to be in short, 
a very superior and a very moral body of countiy gentle¬ 
men ; they hold, by a tenure for life, what their neigh¬ 
bours have the additional advantage of transmitting in 
hereditary succession. A Roman Catholic clergyman 
might with equal propriety challenge lands,* which were 
alienated from the church in the time of Henry VIII. 
which neither Mary nor. James attempted to restore, and 
of which a great portion is now indiscriminately enjoyed 
by the zealous adherents of his own discipline. There 
is in fact, in the relative condition of these two eccle¬ 
siastical bodies, no ground for repining, different from 
that, which may arise in the breast of aiy moderate man 
at the condition of a more opulent neighbour. No 
combination of circumstances can be imagined, which is 
Jikely to invest the Catholic clergy, either with the esta- 
blishment, or any portion of it. Not the enterprize of 

179S 


I 


« 


40 


1798 ; for had that atrocious effort proved successful, 
the non-Catholics would have predominated—they are 
more energetic and compact, and possess more of the 
mind of the country. There is probably but one point 
in which all parties would have agreed, totally to se¬ 
parate permanent and fixed property from the clerical 
function. . 

Accident, perhaps rather the nature of things bear¬ 
ing that appearance, usually makes a more rational and 
provident disposition, than what we consider to be the 

exertions of acute wisdom. Indeed an institution can 

* 

seldom prevail for a length of time, in any country, 
without having originated in some public necessity, or 
assimilating to itself the wants and feelings of the people; 
such seems to have been the case with respect to the di¬ 
vision of the Irish into religions. It is clearly the interest 
of ail parties, to submit, without jealousy or cavil, to 
this distribution, and to the double establishment which 
it renders indispensable; and it should be the duty of 
policy and prudence, to place both denominations on a 
fooling of good neighbourhood, to assign its duties to 
each and to render the means of fulfilling’ these duties 
more efficacious. The mixture of public endowment 
and private donation, the double dependance on the state 
and on the people, seem likely to produce a better effect, 
both on the assiduity and moderation of the popular 
clergy, than if they were on one hand selected and paid 
by the holders of the benefices, or any superior power; 
or on the other, that their views for favour or reward 
were solely directed to the people. 


SECTION 


SECTION II. 


State of the Roman Catholic Clergy , as to the 
Difficulties of their Ministry . 

Some foreigner has observed, how much more powerful 
would the British empire appear, if the national appel¬ 
lations of Irish and Scot were not invidiously contrasted 
with that of Englishman. In this branch of the empire 
vve proceed still further, extending the cause of weak¬ 
ness, and refining on the principle of disunion, by our 
local factions of Protestant and Catholic. Td j^ail at 
Popery, may gratify the vehemently adverse prejudices 
of one of these parties; * I cannot see that it conduces 
to any other purpose. Assuredly the number of ad¬ 
herents to any cause is not diminished, nor is their 
zeal abated, by rash and unfounded accusations; on the 
contrary, that mode of proceeding renders men more 
stedfast. If you attack a dogma of doctrine, every 
person of candour is aware, that the matter admits a 
contrariety of opinion: keeping therefore his own, he 
may indulge his neighbour without acrimony. When a 
people are told, that their teachers are so immoral as to 
inculcate sedition, this is a fact upon which no man 
can be deceived ; his recollection, his feelings, and his 
experience bring the truth to him irresistibly. Such 

g strains 

* During the famous controversy on the subject of importing live cattle, 
it w.is gravely advanced, that Irish bullocks would not grow fat upon English 
grass. This assertion very much resembles the opinion sometimes pro¬ 
mulgated in our days, that no treatment can make the Catholic loyal. 




42 


strains of invective,* as are sometimes uttered, proceed 
for the most, part from a radical misapprehension of the 
subject; the essential mischief is, that they must fre¬ 
quently fall into the hafids of men, who can practi¬ 
cally refute the imputation, and who at the same time 
resent the charge, and commiserate those who are the 
objects of it. Persons who would, if left to them¬ 
selves, have been indifferent, are provoked to animated 
adoption, and the more strenuous are wound up to 
the highest pitch of enthusiasm. The crisis and situa¬ 
tion in which we are placed, do not require to be mag¬ 
nified—they certainly open to our view important 
concerns and serious duties; every party must contribute 
to the heavy burdens which the state is necessitated to 
impose, and every party ought to exert itself with 
vigour, to protect the common cause of our happiness 
and independence. The object I propose to myself, 
and which I hope to contrast with those, who are te¬ 
nacious of these divisions, is, to point to the measures, 
which, mitigating the evil of a great and permanent 
disunion, may render a large proportion of our people 
more disposed to be strenuous in the one instance, and 
cheerful in the other. In the redundant population of 
the Irish Catholics, there are materials, if they were 
so directed, to alarm the Gallic usurpation for its own 
existence j there is a class of men, numerous and 
energetic, patient of toil and prodigal of suffering;—- 
these desirable qualities are at this moment, in some de¬ 
gree, auxiliary to our enemy, and converted against our 

own 

* The Anti-Jacobin Review for July 1804 affirms, that an Irish Clergy¬ 
man acts as a rtbel agent in Paris, whilst nothing is more publicly known 
in Dublin, than that the individual mentioned went to Lisbon in a deplorable 
state of health, by the direction of physicians, and that he has resided there 
incessantly since his departure.from this country. 


43 


own establishments. I do not adopt or recommend every 
course of proceeding that has been suggested by zeal, 
often false, canting, and corrupt; often indiscreet, im¬ 
provident, and unenlightened ; but let the character of 
the Irish be studied ; let their reasonable wants and wishes 
be considered and accommodated : I press the counsel, 
of giving to the feeling of this people an inclination, and 
an impulse conformable to the interests of the empire, at 
a moment, which undoubtedly affords peculiar facilities to 
render the undertaking successful. If I were to express, 
what is my own conviction, that, the present war is 
waged between encroaching despotism and independence, 
I should describe principles not universally intelligible, 
or which do not apply to every understanding : It is a 
war between Bonaparte, divested of popular pretensions, 
and the ancient royal family of France, long respected by 
the Irish, contending for that right and justice, which is 
abetted by, which is in unison with, every sentiment and 
every prejudice ; between Bonaparte, whose character 
and claims are not calculated to be acceptable to our peo¬ 
ple, and the Bourbons, to whom they are not without 
obligations, which have been felt, and may be enforced 
more extensively. And shall I be told, that in the hu¬ 
mour of our Protestants, there is an impediment to this 
pursuit? Let this intelligent description of the Irish public 
be called to reflect, and let these matters be put fully and 
fairly to them; they will not continue to throw away the 
energies of their country—they will not make that sacri¬ 
fice for the children’s game of factious squabbles, the buf¬ 
foonery of ribbons and parades, and the bauble of affected 
pre-eminence. 

There are blemishes in the national character of Ire¬ 
land, and difficulties in managing its population. I admit 
these facts, the existence of them indeed forms the ground- 

c 2 * * work 


44 


Work of my reasoning, and is the apology for this publi¬ 
cation. I account for them, not by the preponderance of 
the Roman Catholic system, but by its failure to a certain 
extent; by the difficulties and discouragements, under 
which it has been placed, and which have prevented it 
from rendering to society the good of which it is suscep¬ 
tible. We have had among us, at least in the humble 
walks of life, precisely that degree of Catholicism, which 
sufficed to pre-occupy the mind, and prevent the admis¬ 
sion of other modes of instruction, but was utterly inade¬ 
quate to restrain the vehement passions of Untutored man, 
and reduce his propensities within the limits of social in¬ 
stitutions. This assertion will, perhaps, excite surprise ; 
it is made in the front of a contrary opinion, which has 
been not a little cherished ; of criminations, which have 
been long and sedulously repeated. It costs less to make 
such charges, than to investigate the occasion of them, 
and trace the evil to its real origin. The spleen of some 
is accommodated, and the indolence of a still greater 
number, who very cheerfully shift upon a name, they do 
not value, the consequence of their own misapprehensions, 
As it is of moment not only to assign the true cause, but 
fully to expose the fallacy of that which has been relied 
on, I shall recur again to these general accusations, hav¬ 
ing first stated as they arise, the circumstances in our 
condition, which denote or have produced the inefficiency 
of the Roman Catholic system ; before the year 177S, it 
undertook to sustain moral purposes, but at present it has 
become inadequate to these; and still more is it insuffi¬ 
cient for those social and civil relations, which the state 
may be induced to expect from the advances it has made 
to a reconciliation with this portion of its people. Before 
the repeal of the Popery laws, the Roman Catholics in 
Ireland were merely a society of religionists ; as such they 

were 


p 


45 


were easily kept together, and,the influence of their clergy 
was competent for its objects ; subsequent to that event, 
the priest has become-less able to fulfil his obligations, and 
although the regard for the forms and tenets has remained 
unaltered, the personal consideration of him, who ex¬ 
pounds them, has declined essentially. The Roman 
Catholic clergy have no longer the same resources to pro¬ 
cure a docile attention to their precepts; whilst they are 
called to act, upon a more extended sphere and upon a 
population, which, being infinitely increased in numbers, 
is, for that reason, more subject to be agitated by vehe¬ 
ment passions, more easily misled, and more mutinous. 

In the early part of the last century, to have been 
an Irish Roman Catholic, was a title to compassion on the 
continent; an ecclesiastic, endeavouring to perfect the 
attainments of his profession; had an extraordinary claim 
to that feeling, and various establishments piously pro¬ 
moted their accommodation. Towards the latter part of 
the century, the sentiment of commiseration insensibly 
wore away; the courts of France and Spain having 
tried * the Irish clergy during the American contest, and 
found them attached to the British sovereign, set the ex> 
ample of indifference. The favour shewn to the Irish, at 
length completely degenerated from the bounty of gene¬ 
rous help, to the cold and humiliating condescension of 
charity, of which the liberal youth did not brook the ac^ 

ceptance, 

* In 1780, when the French court made preparations to invads Ireland, 
very high offers were held out to any Irish priest, who would embark in the 
expedition j there were above two hundred on the foundation of tire Irish 
college at Paris; I recollect that the proposal was made to them, and 
rejected unanimously and indignantly. I understand it was repeated through 
the entire French dominions with the same effect. Has this spirit fled ? If 
it has passed away, who is responsible for a change so pernicious, or to what 
cause is it to be attributed ? 


46 


ceptance.* The course of education, preparatory ta 
holy orders, became of consequence less inviting and 
more costly, whilst the advantages of the situation dimi¬ 
nished, and persons in easy circumstances, perceiving 
that an expensive education only conducted to a precari¬ 
ous establishment, became desirous to discourage any 
disposition in their children to undertake the clerical pro¬ 
fession. Hitherto, the reverence, with which the cler¬ 
gyman was treated, constituted in a considerable degree, 
the inducement to engage in that condition. This flat¬ 
tering reception, the religious turn which persecution 
produces, and perhaps the difficulty of finding occupa¬ 
tion for their youth,f amidst the discouragements and 
disabilities of the popery laws, filled the clerical order 
with numbers who augmented its reputation. Almost 
every Catholic family of note in the kingdom held it a 
duty to assign some children to the service of religion ; 
hut this reverence has very much abated ; with the 
age of money, new notions have been introduced, more 
conformable to the spirit of a money-making people. 

The necessaries of life, during the period I have 
referred to, were at a low price, and the practice of 
hospitality very universal ; a payment in money was not 
much sought for, and was not requisite. The priest 
lived freely with his parishioners, the most respected 
inmate of whatever house he thought fit to visit ; the 
severity of the law, and the inquisition of the magistrates 
impending over his head, only served to render him art 
object of more endearing solicitude to the people. From 

177Q 

* Possibly the greater diffusion cf property in Ireland contributed to 
this rejection. 

•f" Educating younger sons to the church, or the service of foreign 
princes, was also used as a means of keeping the family inheritance entire 
and defeating the gavel laws. 


47 


1770 to 1780, the old hostility of the sects abated, 
Roman Catholics of property assimilated themselves to 
Protestants of the like condition. The pursuit of the 
clergy was disused, and the laws grew obsolete. After 
1780, the volunteer institutions drew more close the 
intercourse, and approximation of habits between the 
parties ; the Catholics ceased gradually to be that austere 
and distant body of religionists, and as they entered 
more cheerfully with their neighbours into the business 
and gaities of life, they grew out of a minute attention 
to, and respectful depandance on, their clergy.—The 
priest was left to provide for himself, and remitted, like 
the pastors of other churches, to his own means his 
perquisites and his duties ; but the assistance, 'which he 
derived from his congregation, was not proportioned to 
the improvement of their condition, or to the variation 
of his circumstances. As the affluent Catholics became 
cold to their clergy, those naturally looked to another 

7 

quarter for the respect which to all men is very grate-* 
ful. This tribute was tendered by the lower people, or 
by the comfortable peasantry, who newly emerged 
from that description. The consequence was such as 
might well have been expected, the priests betook them¬ 
selves to those classes, and by that step, declined still 
more in civil estimation ; I speak of what occurred, 
not indeed universally, but in a considerable degree. 
The restrictive effect of the pastoral character did not 
derive any aid, from this dependance, for much of 
what was necessary, and more oi what was accept¬ 
able ; from the loss of consideration with the upper 
classes, and a too familiar intercourse with their in¬ 
feriors. 

Under the same circumstances, a perverse jealousy 
of the Roman Catholic clergy grew up among the. ma¬ 
gistracy. 


48 


gistraey, and most active of the middling country gen¬ 
tlemen. Those persons were for the most part the con¬ 
siderable renters, or the agents of the great proprietors ; 
they were those, who, coming immediately into collision 
with the common people, had to sustain the reproaches, 
which that class of men are ever ready to utter on their 
occasional disappointment* An improvident encrease 
of numbers beyond the occupation, which the country 
afforded, reduced the estimation of men, and the value 
of labour. The cottager attributed the severity of his 
lot (which certainly was not softened by all the solici¬ 
tudes and attentions which we observe in the sister 
island) to the exactions of the resident middle men. 
The breach between the parties was rendered still more 
wide by turbulence on the one side, and legal executions 
on the other. Those, who felt and resented the want of 
cordiality, and of that lead and influence, to which they 
deemed themselves to be entitled, supposed they had 
only to blame the rivalship of the Romish clergy : with 
great assiduity, and frequently with success, they ap¬ 
plied themselves to diminish in the public mind the credit 
of this body, and when any popular or mobbish motions 
arose out of the circumstances of the country, it was 
not unusual to set all down to the account of the clergy. 
Thus a new responsibility was imposed, the original 
recompense was in a great measure withdrawn, and no 
substitute provided. An alteration of manners and 
feelings took place, b}‘ which the Catholic clergy were 
considerable losers. Not being borne forward, by the 
advancing circumstances of the country, they did not 
preserve their proportion in the public esteem ; their 
consideration was lessened, their situation became more 
perplexed, their ministry more difficult; and the vacan¬ 
cies, occurring in their body, were not filled so easily, 

nor 


% 


49 


nor in every ease, lrom a class so well prepared for 
civil duties. They were, indeed, exempted from legal 
perils, which had been frequently eluded, and which 
it was at all times honorable to encounter ; but, in the 
place of them, arose an affectation of contempt, de¬ 
rision, and the hostility ol a jealous alienation. These 
things bore more heavily upon the public morals of the 
country, and touched more closely the intercourse of the 
pastor and flock, because the state cf society, from the 
time of the volunteer establishment to the rise of the po¬ 
pery question in 1791, gave to the Protestants of a cer- 
tain property, whose feelings I have thus described, free 
access to their Roman Catholic fellow citizens. How 
much more wise and politic would it have been, if those 
whose administration or possession of power in pro¬ 
vincial jurisdictions enabled them to act with consider¬ 
able effect, had afforded their countenance to the religion 
they saw before them ?—but far otherwise ; the magis¬ 
trate did not in any degree co-operate—his temper was 
hostile to the favorite teachers of the people—if he 
interfered, it was to weaken the force of their precepts, 
to deride and undervalue their example ; and all this 
improvident rant was distinguished by the appellation 
of liberality. It was no easy matter to manage or 
instruct a scattered and redundant population ; acted 
upon by a very remiss and irritating police, without 
any of the helps by which the cause of morality is 
usually promoted. The Irish must have been impressed 
with an innate love of virtue beyond any people that 
ever existed, if thus left to themselves, they had not 
been corrupted ; and their clergy must have been some¬ 
thing more than human, if they had fulfilled all the 
expectations that seemed to be entertained from their 
ministry ; and yet how unreasonably has this clergy in 

h <§ur 


50 


our times been censured, because they did not effect all 
the moral good, which might have been . looked for 
from their exertions, under the most propitious circum¬ 
stances? censured even, for not having surmounted 
difficulties, created by the very men who accused tnem 
of insufficiency, or of something much more criminal. 
When the public peace has been interrupted, the fashion 
Wfis, without ceremony or enquiry, to im ute all the 
mischief to the priest — Ci he might have prevented,” said 
they, £e if he did not encourage the disturbance.” The 
nature of his influence was totally irflsunderstood, and 
the extent of it was rather measured by the spleen, than 
by the observation of his accusers. 

If the Roman Catholic clergy of Ireland were 
clear from external inconvenience, and that the paths 
to their ministry were in all other respects perfectly 
open and level, they are to contend with internal differ 
cullies, fully adequate to defeat the social usefulness of 
their function. In the first instance, the division of 
parishes does not correspond to the present scale of 
population. The original distribution of parishes in 
Ireland, of which the names alone are preserved by 
both churches, was sufficiently compact, and certainly 
denotes, that when Christianity took effect, the country 
was well peopled. At the present day, a number of 
these denominations is formed into an union, and 
assigned to a single pastor—among the Protestants, be¬ 
cause a single clergyman was sufficient for the cure— 
among the Catholics, because formerly, still more than 
at present, the cure afforded no more than a single main¬ 
tenance. After the revolution, the country was wasted, 
poor and depopulated, and the system of pasturing the 
lands, which prevailed for sixty or seventy years, left 
t he evil without remedy. The division, so far as regards 

the 


51 


the Catholics, probably took place under these circum¬ 
stances ; those, who made it, only considered the small 
number who were to contribute to the clergyman’s 
Support, and to whom his functions were to be admi¬ 
nistered. i lie private precept and public exhortation 
of the pastor are lost, amidst the laborious and mul¬ 
tiplied duties, which he has to discharge ; he cannot 
afford leisure either to assist in forming the minds of 
youth, or to superintend the morals or edification of 
mature age ; and it is probably because they are thus 
abandoned to themselves ; because they want the gui¬ 
dance of him, who would be considered a venerable 
friend, and who alone is capable of making an impres¬ 
sion on them, that these headstrong and impetuous pas¬ 
sions, which mislead the lower Irish, are so very pre¬ 
valent. It is not possible to devise any corrective for 
the propensity to intoxication, the facility 7 to engage in 
lawless enterprises, and the other familiar vices that de¬ 
form the face of our country, so effectual, as the influ¬ 
ence, the frequent conversation with, and minute atten¬ 
tions of that person, to whose voice the people may be 
induced to listen, because they have attached to him the 
opinion of a sacred and exalted character. 

At the present day, the charge of each clergyman is 
not so much a parish, as a district, and comprehends a 
range so wide, that the attendance on the sick, and a 
huddled ceremony of confession fill and consume his time, 
and keep him continually in action. Consolation in death 
is a prominent feature of the Christian religion ; the man 
who believes that he is to be judged by a being, to whom 
supplication and penitence are acceptable, must, as he 
perceives the period of his judgment approach, be more 
earnest in disposing himself to meet it.—Perhaps the 
Irish, as being thoughtless and negligent in health, are 

H 2 


more 


52 


more tenacious on the bed of sickness ; this certainly is an 
object of the highest attachment, and sanctioned by all 
the laws of prejudice and custom. A family falls intu 
lasting disgrace, if any of its members is suffered to die 
without calling in the clergyman’s assistance ; and it is in 
the priest an irreparable forfeiture of his claim to esteem 
or reputation to be found remiss in exhibiting his aid, 
even to the meanest and most wretched object, and un¬ 
der circumstances of the greatest possible disgust and 
danger. With an injunction so powerfully enforced^ 
there is no temporising ; there is, of course, no negli¬ 
gence—it is, undoubtedly, a most humane and beneficent 
exercise of duty ; but, as things are at present arranged, 
it supersedes other cares, more calculated to form the 
habits and the mind, and on which more depends, at 
least, as to our temporal accommodation. The Roman 
Catholic religion recommends or enjoins many ritual ob¬ 
servances, which, as subordinate, are excellent helps and 
auxiliaries to morality ; but here they become concerns 
of sole or superior attention,, and are practically adopted, 
as the essence of the system, rather than a co-operating 
accessary. The religion is reduced to a mere series of 
observances, and degenerates into superstition. I havft 
already observed, the attention of the Catholic clergy is 
.sufficient to preserve a zealous regard for their particular 
discipline; but their situation is incompetent to draw this 
discipline to the perfection of which it is capable. The 
actual predilection for the forms of the church of Rome, 
and the advantage it enjoys of holding the people by con¬ 
firmed attachment, render them inaccessible to the intro¬ 
duction of any other system, whilst this daily declines, in 
point of civil utility, and becomes more unapt for social 
purposes, by the want of countenance and support from 
public authority, and generally from the superior orders 

of 


\ 


53 

of the community. I must add, injustice, my total cost- 
viction, that this support is not maliciously with-held, but 
merely because the matter has not been explained to that 
class, from whom the assistance, in a great measure must 
emanate. • \ 

I shall select, for example, the practices of auricular 
confession and exhortation ; this latter common to all our 
Christian societies; the former peculiar to the Roman 
Catholics. Confession furnishes, without doubt, an ad¬ 
mirable means of exciting religious sentiments, and pre¬ 
serving a sense of our moral obligations ; but it seems to 
me, that the effect must be frustrated, in a great mea~ 
sure, by the manner in which this rite is exhibited to our 
rustics. It is habitually frequented, at the two seasons of 
Easter and Christmas;—as the time approaches, the cler¬ 
gyman assigns a day and a place for each division of his 
parish ; thither the whole population of the quarter re¬ 
pairs ; a morning is the utmost extent of attendance that 
can be afforded, and between the shortness of the time, 
and the number who present themselves, that, which 
ought to be a solemnity of pause and reflexion, becomes 
a sort of turbulent, unmeaning festivity. Now this in¬ 
stitution is certainly susceptible of an abuse, when re¬ 
sorted to inconsiderately, and by persons who do not un¬ 
derstand it; and nothing more probable, than that several 
will he found in this predicament, where the difficulties 
of explanation and instruction are already so very great, 
and on the encrease with the extending population of the 
country. A Roman Catholic, acquainted with the doc¬ 
trines of his church, considers the chair of his confessor 
to be a place of humiliation, of candid and penitent ac¬ 
knowledgment, paternal advice, reproof and instruction ; 
hut will these awful truths strike the mind without prepa¬ 
ration ? unquestionably they will not, and I do not see 

how 


54 


\ 

how the preparation is to be effected, where thefe is per¬ 
haps one clergyman to more than a do^en miles of a po-* 
pulous country, unprovided with schools or places of re¬ 
sort for the younger part of his congregation. Must I be 
so sanguine as to expect, that, under these circumstances, 
there will be no misunderstanding of this delicate, this 
two-edged observance ?—Must I suppose that none will 
come to consider it as an easy atonement for cffences ? 
My own observation is very much in favour of the salu¬ 
tary and restrictive effect of confession those, who 
have been educated with reverence for the practice, 
make the disuse of it the first step to a deviation from the 
paths of moral rectitude. I bear this testimony in truth 
and candour. My judgment of the divine institution 
is not calculated to affect any person, who is not im¬ 
pressed with a similar opinion, but my testimony may be 
received by all, as to the effects of a practice which does 
and must exist, and which I have better opportunities to 
appreciate than others, who express themselves on this 
subject authoritatively. What these suppose to be the 
constant practice, I admit to be a possible abuse in cases 
of gross neglect and radical ignorance ; such is the whim¬ 
sical nature of our present situation, that we seem to in¬ 
vite the abuse, and make provision for the ignorance, for 
the rite is in full exercise, with every possible provoca¬ 
tion or facility to misapply it. What a tremendous 
profanation, in the eyes of a Roman Catholic, of a sacred 
institution?—what a mischief in the mind of every man, 
that any oportunity should be afforded to reconcile the 
people with a breach of their duties ! 

Perhaps, one of the most impressive methods of in¬ 
struction, that can be imagined, was the preparation of 
children for their first communion, which annually took 

place 


55 


place in a French village*, under the inspection of the 
curate. I do not know whether the rural manners of 
England include any practice of this tendency. In 
Scotland, the constant visitation and converse of the 
clergyman, for which he is responsible to the synod, 
tnust be productive of similar advantage. In Ireland 
nothing of the kind occurs, at least not in the country . 
nor do I see, in the state of things I have described, how 
it possibly could be effected. 1 do not suppose that any 
mode of cultivation will render men unexceptionably 
strict, nor for my part am I desirous to see them eter_ 
nally canting and whining over their devotions ; hut there 
can he little doubt that persons, who are induced at an 
early period to rellect, and upon whom strong impres¬ 
sions have been made, continue, through life, more in¬ 
clined to correctness of conduct, and more susceptible 
of good dispositions. There is an elevation of mind in 
those, upon whom some pains have been timely bestowed, 
and perhaps our lower people stand more in need of this 
than of any other quality whatever. 

On the Sabbath, the inhabitants of this traqt of 
country, denominated a parish, are convened in a mul¬ 
titudinous congregation ; such of them, at least, as are 
within hearing of the clergyman f, might now he ex¬ 
horted ; the general principles of Christianity, and their 

own 

* It is a mistake to imagine, that the French before the revolution were 
so very profligate, as the manners of their large towns bespoke them. 
Nothing could certainly be more corrupt than their cities and the environs 
of them ; but nothing more decent and innocent than the rustic manners, 
especially far in the interior of the provinces. 

■j. Asa country chapel is seldom sufficient to contain one-fourth of the 
congregation, they are to be seen spread over the country for the extent of a 
quarter of a mile. I recollect a witty remark by a gentleman who witnessed 
this spectacle, that they seemed to reeeive the word of God by the trach, 
like electricity. 


56 


own peculiar practices enforced and expounded ; but the 
clergyman has generally to read prayers, for two or 
three congregations, each several miles distant from the 
other ; when he meets some of them, he is too much ex¬ 
hausted to make the exertion; and another necessity su¬ 
pervenes in a great many instances ; —«■ at the several 
seasons of collecting his dues, Sunday is the only time 
when the priest can solicit for the contribution he must 
subsist on ; he is obliged to state his own wants, and re¬ 
primand the tardiness of his parishioners. In this con¬ 
cern, the time is consumed which should be allotted for a 
sermon. The introduction of his pecuniary pretensions 
throws upon the divine worship an air of burlesque, and 
weakens the effect of instruction, if it be attempted ; and 
yet so reluctantly are the contributions paid, that the 
priest who hesitates to press and urge for his dues, will 
find himself miserably deficient. The assiduous repe¬ 
tition of the claim gives an appearance of extortion, and 
the very necessity of it must create, in the clergyman 
himself, dispositions and habits by no means liberal, and 
very often inconsistent both with the temper and the 
dignity that we justly expect in that delicate and im~ 
portant station. 

Where the clergyman is necessitated to live a great 
deal at the houses of his parishioners ; where he is 
obliged to consider this resource an essential part of his 
provision, I conceive his condition to be replete with 
inconvenience. He is withdrawn from the habits of 
recollection, in which a man oi that grave profession 
should desire to bestow a large portion of his time ; he 
is led into a connexion with the affairs of the world ; he 
is under inducements and temptations, in many respects* 
to temporize. I uo not mean to insinuate, that very 
libei al intercourse ought not to , subsist between the 

pastor 


57 


✓ 


pastor and his parishioners; but the difference is con¬ 
siderable, between a man entertained as a guest, and one 
admitted as a dependant. Whilst I prepare these sheets 
for the press, I have learned that such is the difficulty 
of supplying the Roman Catholic ministry with clergy¬ 
men, and so considerable the diminution of their 
numbers, as to give occasion farther to extend the 
district in the charge of each individual. It is needless 
to urge how much the evils I have described will be 
aggravated by this necessity. The zeal for the Roman 
Catholic religion is as great, and the number of fervent 
practisers of Roman Catholic devotion still greater than 
at any former period * ; I can only attribute this failure 
to the perplexities which Roman Catholics at the head of 
families have discerned in the condition of their priest¬ 
hood. I shall sum in a few words what I have endea¬ 
voured to describe more at large ;—it is the want of 
countenance from the superior and most respected classes? 
the want of protection against suspicion and insult; the 
want of something fixed and regular to stimulate hope 
and sustain exertion. I shall proceed to offer some ex¬ 
pedients by which these defects may be supplied ; and I. 
do not think, in that event, that candidates for the 


situation will hesitate to offer. 


* I mean that the middle class of families, who are above ignorance, 
and helowcorruption, has very considerably augmented in Ireland; and that 
this class is more likely to produce subjects intent on devotion, and ready to 
feetake themselves to a life of stricter religious practices. 


SECTION 


(r 




I 


53 


SECTION III. 

State of the Roman Catholic Clergy , with a View to 
the Arrangements that might be entered into , in 
order to render their Ministry more useful . 

Having stated the inconveniences under which the 
Roman Catholic religion in Ireland labours, I proceed, 
in the course of my subject, to consider tbe means 
whereby these inconveniences may, in some measure, be 
redressed, and by which the interference of the state may 
place a system, which I apprehend to be very necessary, 
in a condition of greater public utility and accommoda¬ 
tion. Some persons may conclude, that the state fulfils 
its duties, by providing for the people a moral and correct 
establishment—this, however, is matter of opinion ; the 
establishment may possess infinite merits, and notwith¬ 
standing prove of small avail, when those, for whose ac¬ 
ceptance it is intended, cannot be induced to esteem it.— 
Beef is very excellent food, but a tribe of Gentoos must 
not be left to starve, because they refuse to eat it. What 
I recommend is by no means, in my judgment, a claim 
of right—I do not see that right extends further, than the 
privilege of worship, unrestrained by penalties, and un¬ 
molested ; but there may be an urgent injunction of pru¬ 
dence, where there is no more direct and positive obliga¬ 
tion. The Roman Catholic clergy are already distin¬ 
guished by many characters of an establishment \ they 
*want this one of connexion with government; they pos¬ 


sess 




59 


sess an influence, which although exaggerated and mis¬ 
understood, is undoubtedly considerable—the} 7 are capa¬ 
ble, it upheld, of extending that influence more widely, 
and or conferring many benefits on society, which, as 
Ave are circumstanced, cannot be procured from any other 
quarter, or upon other terms. These motives suggest, 
indeed to me they seem in somewhat of an imperative 
form to enjoin, that the views of this body should be di- 
rented to the supreme magistrate; that they should be 
brought to that feeling, which identifies the individual 

o o 3 

Avith the state and connects him with the stability of go- 
vernment by somewhat more than a cold, a remote, and 
uninteresting sense of duty. The idea, present to my 
mind, is to follow the inclination to the Catholic religion, 
where this inclination prevails, and to ingraft on it the 
moral and social virtues, and advantages of Christianity. 
I apprehend the design may be forwarded with greater 
facility, by falling in with the oid and fixed attachments 
of the country, than by an attempt to communicate 
practices and doctrines, which are not familiar. There 
are persons so very adverse, that they will not entertain 
my proposal without repugnance, and will be ready to 
suppose for, or impute to, me, sectarian views or predi¬ 
lections. I fully and formally disavow, that I am actu¬ 
ated by such feelings. No man need hesitate to acknow¬ 
ledge a lively interest in the welfare of a communion 
which he esteems and has adopted ; but tnese are piivate 
considerations, which it Avere presumption and folly to 
think of extending into a general question. If the state of 
the Roman Catholic clergy merely concerned that descrip¬ 
tion of religionists with whom I am classed, I snould take 
my place within the limits of my own society, and there 
contribute my quota of exertion ; but it is no such thing 

_it is the affair, not of any party or subdivision, but of 

i 2 th* 


60 


he monarchy, of the empire, and emphatically—of Ire¬ 
land. It is not a question of more or less accommodation 
to any particular description, not a matter of compli¬ 
ment to a religious society, however numerous and re¬ 
spectable. During the reign of projects which, after 
1782, succeeded to the wordy war of political contention, 
we were struck with the defects and wants of our people, 
schemes of education were broached, which were found 
impracticable or ineffectual, because they did not begin 
from the proper source—the apt and judicious application 
of the Roman Catholic religion ; under this head are com¬ 
prised, and under it alone, are to be sought, the means 
of educating the lower orders of the Irish people ; of form¬ 
ing and training those to peaceable dispositions, to settled 
habits, and sober industry, upon whose exertions society 
leans for the extension, and the use of property ; and by 
whose vices that property is rendered neither a matter of 
public resource, nor of enjoyment to the individual. I can. 
expect attention alone, as I sustain myself by enforcing 
these considerations. 

I must again offer my protest, as to the manner in 
which the subject I propose has frequently been thought 
and spoken of. We will gain over, say some, the Romish 
clergy, by a distribution of money, because they may be 
induced to assist government with their vigilance, with 
their information. Far other are the views in which 
these sentiments are submitted—I should regret tc>^ee the 
Roman Catholic clergy engaged to the state for any ser¬ 
vices, except those which are connected with a decorous 
sense of relative duties and of propriety. I should cer¬ 
tainly have my feelings for the degradation of their func¬ 
tion, but it applies more immediately to trie tenor of 
these observations, to remark, that if they outstep that 
line, the very objects that are held in view, will be de¬ 
feated. 


61 


touted. I should wish, that by the prudence of this body‘s 
the people were reconciled to the authorities under which 
they arc to live—I should wish that evil were anticipated 
by their care, and the mind formed to virtuous purposes, 
which, if left without cultivation, might become criminal. 
1 wish them to be rendered creditable and efficient, be¬ 
cause such is their situation, that it must become mis¬ 
chievous and fatal in the extreme, unless upon it are 
strongly impressed the characters of respectability and re¬ 
putation—1 should rather uphold and confirm than bribe 
away their influence. It forms no part of my project to 



police ; I do not treat or consider them as demagogue* 
to be got under a mercenary subjection. In this manner 
I know the subject of a provision for the Roman Catholic 
clergy has frequently been mentioned.—Leave them as 
they are, unless you prepare to render them more re¬ 
spectable, and to place them in a condition more suitable 
to their functions. Do not touch the means of settlement 
and materials of religion which exist, unless you are as¬ 
sured that your interference will improve them. 

It is a sort of preliminary consideration, or at least 
presses most forward in my mind, that expenditure 
is not so essential as regulation ; money may be given 
liberally, or even profusely; but it will be given in 
vain, unless the proceeding he accompanied by method, 
reflection, and system—unless every part be made to 
correspond with the entire view and design-—unless, in 
short, the movers of the measure act with a perfect 
knowledge of the matter in which they are engaged, of 
the body whom they have to manage, of the people, 
their sentiments, and necessities. Let it be promul¬ 
gated, that government will take charge of this establish¬ 
ment; numbers of the laity will immediately hold them¬ 
selves 


62 


selves excused from the accustomed contribution ; if 
then the sum allotted to each clergyman fall short of his 
usual income, or if, from injudicious management, any 
perceive themselves losers by what was intended as a 
bounty, not a feeling of obligation, but very serious 
discontent will be the consequence. It would be yet 
worse to assign a fund, and leave it to be scrambled for 
among a crowd of pretenders. Artifice and intrigue 
would interfere ; some would obtain more, others less, 
than their due proportion ; the one would not be re¬ 
lieved, the others would be diverted from the sphere of 
their duties into worthless and unprofitable indolence ; 
all would become caballers. A salary, unconnected with 
professional exertions, constitutes a condition of unex¬ 
cited indolence, in which it is the tendency even of the 
wisest and best men, insensibly to relax. If the Roman 
Catholic parochial clergy, degenerating to that temper, 
forego their accustomed attentions, the public will cast 
their eyes elsewhere; they will not cease, as I have 
already observed, to be Roman Catholics, but they will 
adhere to other teachers of that religion, with whom the 
government must find it impossible to be connected, 
both because the pursuit would be endless, and because 
the persons, who thus present themselves, would be less 
within the controul and management of episcopal autho¬ 
rity. If you permit the ordinary clergy, whom it is 
easy to combine and direct, to forfeit the favour of the 
people by negligence or apathy, an irregular and utterly 
unmanageable description w r iil intrude, and with more 
probability of success, as the laity will be better able 
to reward them, when exonerated from the dues of their 
usual pastors. 1 he disposition of the public to pious 
observances will be seized on, and converted to the 
purposes of imposition or fanaticism. I conceive it not 


at 


63 


at all impossible, that the public may be put to enormous 
expence, and the superintendance of the plan and of 
the fund assigned to most excellent deserving men ; to 
persons of the very best intentions ; yet the design may 
be totally frustrated, and religion be placed in a condition 
more unfavourable than without such interference; of 
this nature was an error committed in the establishment 
which has been settled at Maynooth. No intentions 
could possibly be more laudable, than those by which 
the government was influenced on that occasion, and the 
persons selected to direct the institution were among the 
most honourable in society ; but these persons were not 
concerned in the original design or in the details ; the 
ministers, who carried the project into effect, had not an 
accurate view of the subject, and they consulted with per¬ 
sons who were incompetent to inform them. The Roman 
Catholic religion might have received the assistance de_ 
signed for it at a much less ex pence, or the sum bestowed 
might have been rendered a means of more extended 
good, and productive of stronger feelings of gratitude* 
The government should have contented itself in providing 
the necessary buildings, appointing officers and professors 
with endowments adequate to ensure a succession, and 
erecting a limited number of foundations in reward of me¬ 
rit, or in aid of deserving necessity ; there, in my appre¬ 
hension, it should have stopped. The bounty, which sup¬ 
ports at the public expence an entire * college, and every 

individual 

* Perhaps the original slip may be repaired, by taking into the h6use an 
indefinite number of pupils, destining themselves for orders, to be kept a f 
private expence, still preserving two hundred places, the actual number of 
the establishment, as a royal bounty, which should be filled according as 
vacancies occur, in the order of merit or of seniority. 

It is certain, that no man will think of paying for his son, if it be held 
/out, that persons who offer for the church are to be educated gratis; neither 

will 


64 


individual of its members, is too indiscriminate , the 
emotions, to which it might be expected to give rise, are 
lost by being general; no man is obliged by what every 
man partakes of. The public feels little sympathy with 
what was considered from its infancy to be an opulent and 
independent establishment. If the plan I mention had 
been pursued, the zeal of several of t;hc Roman Catholic 
laity, and of most of the clergy, would have been called 
into action—they would have been emulous to select aud 
support deserving subjects; many would have entered on 
the establishment, who would have been able, with very 
little aid, often without any, to defray the expences of 
their education ; the public would take a lively interest in 
an institution, which leaned upon it in some measure 
for support; — it would cherish the establishment; it 
would communicate with, and be guided by, its members, 
whilst the situations provided by the crown would give 
an inclination and an impulse to the entire bod}". In the 
rapid succession of collegiate preferment, many would 
receive the distinction, all would hope to attain it ; the 
feelings of youth would be directed by times to the head 
of the state, and to the objects connected with his secu¬ 
rity ; they would be directed to these views by gratitude 
often renewed ; by the very pride, which the sense of 
having been distinguished would excite in their bosoms. 
I consider it an undeniable fact, that if among one hun¬ 
dred persons, you distribute ten places of preferment, to 
which all may in rotation aspire, you will receive in re¬ 
turn more animated exertions, and a more decided sup¬ 
port, 

will persons, who can afford to pay, destine their children for that condition, 
if they perceive that men of no particular recommendation are brought up 
free of expence, and start with equal advantage. One of the principles I 
endeavour to impress, is, that Catholics of circumstance should be led to 
give their sons to the church. 


/ 


65 


port, than if you confer upon the entire hundred a fa- 5 
lour, which they are assured can never be augmented: 
but, with respect to the collegiate establishment, the die 
is cast; it would at present be ruinous to retract; the 
public have been formed to believe, that no co-operation 
on their part is necessary, and it would be a difficult, 
indeed an impracticable, enterprise to lead them to a 
different sentiment. In the present circumstances, it 
would be more prudent to let this matter remain as it is, 
and to take advantage in another way of the unoccupied 
zeal of religious Roman Catholics ; and I press with more 
earnestness for proceeding in the instance before us with a 
perfect knowledge of the subject, because it appears to 
me to open an opportunity of national settlement, which, 
if misapplied, is irretrievable. 

If this subject were not critical, if it had not been 
repeatedly opened by persons, whose wisdom would have 
proved ineffectual, and whose designs, however excellent 
in intention, would have been frustrated by their inap¬ 
plicability, I should hesitate much to mix my thoughts in 
the family of projects; I am aware of the ridicule 
which awaits on plans, and far from insinuating, that 
any I may devise should deserve to be adopted. But 
my notions, however imperfect, may serve to put in 
motion the ideas of others ; in that hope. I shall state the 
hints that have occurred to me ; and minds of very 
superior fertility and discernment may be enabled, from 
the information furnished by a Roman Catholic, to 
proceed towards somewhat of a consistent and salutary 
arrangement. Not a little, of what I should be desirous 
to propose, must depend on manners; for example, the 
aversion to a Catholic clergyman, which men of local 
influence and authority are very prone to manifest. 
This disposition must be discouraged by the example of 

x the 


66 


the government and of men of consequence; by in¬ 
structions to magistrates severely to repress outrages 
offered to these persons, to afford them the full pro¬ 
tection of the law, and to guard them against capricious 
jealousies and suspicions. Instances arising in the late 
times of general heat ought not certain!}" to be taken 
without several allowances; but I could adduce many 
examples of very brutal demeanor with respect to clergy¬ 
men of great learning, piety, and of the most exem¬ 
plary and decorous manners Faults of this kind occur 
most frequently where the sects live apart from each 
other: they are also to be found, where the practice is 
preserved of placing authority exclusively in the hands 
of Protestants of inferior rank and education f. As 
this practice falls into disuse, so will the evils that arise 
from it. The provocations given by adventuring justices 
of peace, by constables and parish officers, under a 
great affectation of zeal for order and government, have 
contributed, at least as much as any other circumstance, 
to alienate the people from established authority, to 
render existence and property precarious, and to convulse 
the British empire in Ireland. 

The first provision is, for the personal security of this 
body of ecclesiastics ; the next care should be, in mv 
opinion, directed to its general respectability, and to 
supply incentives for exertion; the third, to the inde¬ 
pendence of each of its members; this provision, how¬ 
ever, 

* Many instances have been mentioned to me, where country gentle, 
men, or what would be considered in England the first class of farmers, 
have, on losing property, sent a dictatorial message to the priest, directing 
him to discover the facts for them. These are strokes of folly , but the 
receiver of the message may happen to be no wiser than the sender. 

h Whilst one description is regarded w r ith jealousy, those who arc to 
watch over them should be the men most likely, from their situation, to act 
with discretion and impartiality. 


67 


ever, to be in no wise separated from the faithful arid 
assiduous discharge of the duties of consolation and 
instruction. 

The Catholic hierarchy in Ireland consists of twenty- 
six prelates,* and the warden of Galway, a dignitary 
enjoying episcopal jurisdiction. A moderate income 
annexed by government to each of these stations, and to 
a certain number of dignitaries in each diocese, together 
with the offices and professorships of the Royal College 
already founded, would, I think, be found sufficient to 
induce Roman Catholics of good condition to permit 
their children, when so inclined, to engage in the mi¬ 
nistry ; and to prevail on persons of pretensions, who 
have engaged, not to abandon the original sphere of 
their duties. The advantage must be incalculable, in 
forming the general character of the order, if you can 
draw within it, and afterwards retain in the country, 
men of education and talents ; men who are accustomed 
to be respected, and who have the feelings incidental to 
that habit ; men, whose early or whose long-continued 
impressions have been liberal. 

The number of Roman Catholic parish priests in 
Ireland actually exceeds one thousand ; it would pro¬ 
bably be expedient, for the reasons and purposes already 
stated, to encrease the number by an addition of about 
one-half. It must be recollected, that the entire project 
is a compromise with opinions, and it will be therefore 
not extraordinary, to lay down as a rule of undeniable 
propriety, that this arrangement should be amicably 
adjusted, in their own way, with the incumbents, and 
with the bishops, their legal and regular superiors; if 

K. 2 at- 


* The title of Dean is preserved in many dioceses, but without any 
advantage annestd to it. 


63 


attempted otherwise to be carried into effect, the design,, 
whatever may be its merits, would not be effectual. 
Upon the contracted scale of duties which this allot¬ 
ment leaves to each clergyman, he would have leisure 
to oversee the education of youth, to visit his parish¬ 
ioners, to exercise a becoming degree of vigilance over 
their general morals, and to instruct them, more mi¬ 
nutely than he can at present, in the principles and prac¬ 
tices of Christianity. This concern ought to be rigidly 
enforced by the Bishops—the Scotch clergy, under the 
control of their several Presbyteries, and of public 
opinion, (which is very much alive in that country) 
discharge this care with great assiduity, and scarcely 
among any people are great crimes or great misery so 
uncommon. Before the revolution, the French parochial 
clergy were enabled to apply themselves to the lower 
class of people, pretty much in the manner I recom¬ 
mend— each pastor v had a school-master under his 
orders, who was paid from some public establishment; 
he was personally acquainted with every individual of 
his parish, and frequent in his visitation of them ; out 
of the circle of the large cities, the lower classes of the 
French were a moral people, simple, and not addicted 
to any intemperance or irregularity ; and nothing could 
be more endearing than-the bonds of attachment which 
united them to their pastors. 

The expense of his peculiar worship, to a tolerably 
substantial farmer or mechanic, in the most opulent and 
Koman Catholic countries, amounts to about five shillings 
annually ; the common labourer is, in the greater 
number of places, excused ; where he is required to 
contribufe, the accustomed rate is one shilling this 

in- 

* This payment being for the convenience of collection usually received 

at 


69 


♦ 


includes the contribution of the entire family, and for 
this the priest is bound to attend them when siqk, 
even at the most unseasonable hours, and to adminis¬ 
ter confession when they apply to him. He is also 
to keep his chapel in order, to celebrate divine service, 
and preach on Sundays and festivals. In what I have 
denominated the Northern district, the emoluments of 
the Catholic parish priest are on an average, as T appre¬ 
hend, from about thirty to fifty pounds per year ; in 
the other parts of Ireland, these emoluments run from 
sixty to ninety pounds, * varying with the opulence or 
with the customs of particular districts. In Munster the 
perquisites are highest, on account of a greater liberality 
in paying for marriages, which immemorial usage has 
established ; the towns produce from one hundred to one 
hundred and twenty, or one hundred and thirty pounds 
per annum ; in some very few instances they go so high 
as two hundred pounds. The bishops receive a small 
donation from every marriage, and a voluntary assess¬ 
ment of one to three guineas from each parish priest 
in the diocese. The bishop has always one parish ; in 
some instances, where his receipts are inadequate to his 
expenses, he holds a second by commendam , which he 
administers by a curate. The bishop usually visits his 
diocese in each year, and holds assemblies of his clergy, 
called conferences, for the purposes of communication, 
discipline, and instruction. There is perhaps a single 
instance of a bishop, whose living exceeds four hundred 

pounds ; 

at Easter, when the people assemble for confession, gave rise to a notion 
among the Irish Protestants, (who are inconceivably uninformed as to the 
religion practised at their doors) that this was the price of absolution. 

* But observe, that this competence is formed by assigning duties and 
a district, to which the priest cannot attend sufficiently ; give to each a 
practicable charge, and they cannot subsist. 


70 


pounds ; in general the income of this class, including 
the parish, amounts to about that sum in the best cir¬ 
cumstanced districts. In other places they receive from 
three hundred to three hundred and fifty pounds. I 
make these calculations without any documents to assist 
me ; they are probable conjectures, founded merely on 
my knowledge of the country, and my observation. A 
return of the income of the Catholic clergy was made 
to government in the year 1801, but I have not had the 
advantage of correcting it by my surmises. I have, 
however, often understood, that these returns were 
generally given at the highest, in consequence of some 
ideas that prevailed, and some expectations that were 
excited. 

The stipend levied for the parochial clergy of the 
Catholics thus appears adequate to the comfortable sub¬ 
sistence of a single man ; but it its precarious; it is 
obtained by mean solicitation ; it induces habits incon¬ 
sistent with any degree of firmness or elevation of mind, 
such as you would desire in the minister and magistrate 
of morality ; such as you would emphatically desire, 
where a rude and unreflecting people are to be formed to 
more tractible habits, to be guided and not unfrcqucntly 
resisted—it is not a necessitous, but a dependant and de¬ 
graded order. 

The towns are in a good measure to be set apart 
from the present description. There is a sort of regular 
. assessment in these places, which, with the occasional 
dues for marriage and christening, and the kind and ge¬ 
nerous devotion of procuring and requiting prayers for 
the deceased, renders the condition of the clergy tolera¬ 
bly reputable and commodious. In the North of Ireland, 
the Roman Catholics are, with inconsiderable exceptions, 
the poorest oi the people ; this circumstance accounts for 

the 


71 


the small recompence of the clerical function in that dis¬ 
trict, and for the greater difficulty in obtaining it. The 
main lund in the North arises from a pitiable, and almost 
ludicrous exhibition at funerals, which indeed daily de¬ 
clines, but which ought altogether to be removed, as an 
impediment to civilization. I cannot censure the priest, 
who has no other means of subsistence; but whilst he 
lives by such means, no respect or credit can be annexed 
to his character, especially in this age, when we advance 
so rapidly after our neighbours in the refinements or de¬ 
cencies of life, and when we are so much accustomed to 
confine our sentiments of respect to those, who are placed 
by their situation above the appearance of necessity. In 
Connaught there is a very considerable body of Roman 
Catholic gentlemen, and the lower class are, with few or 
no exceptions, of the same religion; but the former are 
above attending minutely to the occasions of the clergy, 
and the latter are too poor to be of any assistance—the 
substantial peasant, who labours and thrives by his in¬ 
dustry, is not as yet so common in that district. The 
gentlemen, if the priest does not render himself objec¬ 
tionable, are ready to give him a liberal and hospitable 
use of their houses, and are, I believe, accustomed to 
make presents in kind of the several articles of agricul¬ 
tural produce, but they are very little formed to the no¬ 
tion of assigning him a pecuniary and independent remu¬ 
neration. 

In the remainder of the country, (what I have de¬ 
nominated the second and third districts, see page 2) the 
face of society does not vary essentially—the prevalence 
of agriculture in this tract has formed a very numerous 
class of substantial and comfortable farmers ; they are not 
prompt in their contributions—they require to be pressed, 
solicited, nay tcazed : it is however in one shape or other 

obtained 


I 


72 

obtained from them, and where the priest has a farm, thtf 
working people, by immemorial usage, assign him a day 
in each season, for the several operations of husbandry * 
this custom (which once was universal), as well as the do¬ 
nations of produce I have just noticed, have fallen very 
much into disuse, since the demand for labour has en- 
creased, and since the value, both of that and of articles 
of produce, has been enhanced considerably. 

I have now traced my subject through a detail of 
matters, trifling perhaps, and frivolous in the eyes of 
many, but surely swelled to the first importance by their 
effects upon society. The greater number of these cir¬ 
cumstances are placed at two great a distance from the 
statesman to reach his knowledge, and are too minute to 
be noticed, unless by an observer, who has been in soinG 
measure a party to them. These, as it appears to me, 
hold a foremost station among the pressing wants of this 
portion of the empire, and indicate the sound and rational 
order of amendment. Attention to sm.hi objects and ne¬ 
cessities, may, and certainly will, if pursued duly and in 
time, evolve and bring to maturity, the geim of improve¬ 
ment, must I say of civilization ; it will be stined if the 
soil be prodigally enriched. Tiie profusion of money is, 

I confess, above ail other things, that which I dread and 
deprecate. 

I would simply propose to introduce into our Roman 
Catholic ecclesiastical s} r stcm, the principle of fixed pro¬ 
perty and the principle of preferment. I would reduce 
the duties to a certain compass, and allow leisure to fulfil 
them; some minor objects occur which may be turned to 
advantage in the correction of our people, and which 
therefore become momentous. 

I have already noticed the huts or hovels, which oc¬ 
casionally appear to be dedicated to the worship of God., 

according 


/ 


according to the forms of the Roman Catholic discipline* 
Indeed I am given to understand, that in a few instances 
the service is performed under a ditch without any other 
shelter. This humiliation is not disgraceful to the peo¬ 
ple, it is their misfortune ; but certainly there is neither 
honour nor ornament to the country, nor is it creditable 
to its gentry, that the worship of the God, whom we all 
adore, upon principles in which we are unanimous, and 
according to rights not very foreign from those of the pre¬ 
dominant or established church, should be, under all the 
circumstances of ancient and popular following, thus 
meanly and shamefully conducted. I would abate those 
nuisances—those monuments of churlish imbecility and 
faction. I would substitute decent and comfortable edi¬ 
fices—I would do so, in the hope that the people, wha 
frequent those places of worship, might be induced by 
the greater show of neatness and propriety to attend their 
parish chapel in better apparel. The inferior Irish re¬ 
quire to he led out of the habits of rags and filth into 
those of a certain elevation of mind and decency of ap¬ 
pearance ; they require to be initiated in those wants, 
which would prove a spur to their exertions, and give a 
more laudable direction to their expences. I really do 
not know any means that could be devised so likely to 
communicate this inclination. When men are to repair 
to a hovel, or the side of a ditch, there is no inducement 
to put on good cloaths ; but if they are to shew themselves 
one day in the week, in a place to which a shabby garb 
does not correspond, one very powerful incitement is pro¬ 
vided to augment their means and improve their condi¬ 
tion. This new ambition and new habit would tend* 
more than all the prohibitions that were ever devised, to 
rescue a portion of the people and of their earnings, from 
that cruel propensity to intoxication, a main cause of all 

h the 


the crimes that, are committed, and of the mischiefs and 
miseries we witness.* During the late years of scarcity, 
when distillation was prevented, and the price of spirits 
utterly exceeded the means of our labouring poor, a 
sensible amendment was observed to have taken place in 
the appearance and apparel of the common people. 

The new division of parishes would impose a ne¬ 
cessity of building several chapels; where the old ones 
are in the condition I have described, it would be equally 
incumbent to replace them. Hitherto this charge has 
been left to the wealthy Roman Catholics, and those Pro¬ 
testants (I must say they have been many) who saw the 
propriety of making this provision for the popular wor¬ 
ship, and paying this compliment to its followers. Those 
who act so deserve praise, but I cannot see that the foun¬ 
dation of a national improvement ought to come out of 
the pockets of particular descriptions. It certainly is a 
matter of as close interest to a Protestant, as to a Roman 
Catholic of property, to redeem the people from dissipa¬ 
tion and nastiness ; it is a matter of nearer interest, when 
the people, to be so redeemed, happen to stand to the 
former in the relation of his neighbours, his tenantry, or 
dependants. 

When the Roman Catholics of a parish are not able 
to provide themselves with a moderately neat and decent 
chapel, the judges of assize might have power to order 
the work to be done, and to direct the grand jury to as¬ 
sess the expence, like our other local improvements, by 
pr esentment. It would add to the merit and utility of 
the measure, if where there is a Protestant population, 

4 . the 

* I apprehend that the number of deliberate crimes committed in Ire¬ 
land is far inferior to those of England, even allowing for the different pro¬ 
portions of population. 


the chapel could be placed contiguous to the church, so 
that the respective congregations, at least at going to 
and from Divine service, might mix and be blended to¬ 
gether. 

Several of these remarks' apply equally to the affair of 
education. There might be at the disposal of each parish 
priest a school-master and mistress, who under his eye, 
and subject to his constant visitation, should teach read¬ 
ing, writing, and such other instructions of the first ne¬ 
cessity, together with the principles and duties of the 
Christian religion, according to his own notions of them. 
If this were to be conducted upon private contribution, 
ought the charge, from its destination, to be borne ex¬ 
clusively by Roman Catholics ?—I apprehend that it ought 
not ; it is the affair of every man ; at least it is the affair of 
those, whoform, or aspire to be received among, the landed 
interest, that the people who live around them should be 
thrifty and well-conducted. You have, I believe, a better 
chance to produce good dispositions by continuing the im¬ 
pressions that had been first received into the mind. I cer¬ 
tainly do not approve of taking children from one religion, 
to institute them in another. When they return to 

J 

society, if they adhere to their newly acquired reli¬ 
gion, they will do so at the hazard of weakening 
their natural affections, or at least the reverence due 
to their parents. Now the construction of a text of 
scripture, according to this or that theologian, may be 
right or wrong ; but there cau be no question that 
tc honour your father and mother ” is a divine precept, 
and the source of generous actions and commendable 
conduct. I would not purchase the accession of a 
votary to my own opinion, by teaching him to despise 
those, to whom he ought through life to be reverential 
and submissive. Probably when the parties return among 

l 2 their 


76 


their friends, the prevalence of habit, and the recurrence 
of their first ideas, will draw them back to their old re¬ 
ligion ; then the attempt to reform them was labour 
lost, and it would have been better to have assisted 
in giving the same kind of virtuous education, under 
such circumstances, as would have never interrupted 
the effect of it, and where that effect would have been 
assisted. I see no advantage to be obtained bv creating 
in young minds a conflict of impressions; when I look 
around me in the country, 1 can see nothing in past 
experience to warrant an expectation that any success 
will crown future efforts of this nature. I have known 
some instances where very estimable and well-intending 
persons have procured young people, by great assiduity 
and by premiums, to assume the appearance of being 
converted ; but I never could find, in five years after 
these promoters of proselytism had removed from the 
particular spot, that the least trace remained of their 
labour. Thousands of bibles upon the reformed plan 
have, as I am informed, been circulated by societies in 
Dublin ; I never could trace one of them in an Irish 
cabin. 

I should prefer to educate the youth of the lower 
orders, under the direction of their peculiar pastor, 
who should be responsible for his care to his bishop. 
Where the people are Catholics, obstacles to the 
education of youth must eternally arise, unless the 
priest be the soul of the establishment—the occasions 
of altercation will, perhaps, frequently be frivolous, 
but the consequence may prove in the last degree im¬ 
portant. I have already marked the effect of half- 
understanding and half-practising the injunctions of the 
Roman Catholic religion; but can these injunctions be 
«ver enforced or explained, or can a respect for them 

be 


77 




be created, by persons who do not comprehend the 
matter themselves, and who, for their own use, both 
reprobate and disclaim it ? Many benevolent attempts 
to assist the poor, in the way of education, have been 
frustrated, sometimes bv this mistaken spirit of prose- 
lytism ; not uufrequently where such design was little, 
if at all, in contemplation, by a want of confidence in 
the promoters of the institution, or a want of good 
understanding between them and the clergymen of the 
popular religion. The Catholic clergyman must be ex¬ 
pected to resist any attempt to withdraw from him the 
Hock of which he has taken charge. It would be a breach 

O 

of duty in him to hesitate or temporise; the man who 
did not resist every movement of this kind, would admit 
himself to be a cheat and an impostor. What men ought 
to do, you must suppose they will do. Very great ex¬ 
ertions are making at present for the instruction of the in¬ 
ferior classes ; but the benevolent cannot possibly succeed, 
unless they adopt this rule of accommodating the pre_ 
possession of the persons whom they are to act upon. 
I consider it not at all extraordinary, that, on a subject 
of this nature, the common people should attend more 
cheerfully and confidently to those of their own per¬ 
suasion. The Catholics of property are in a situation to 
render the most essential services to their country by 
attention to these objects; and it must be noticed with 
congratulation, that the occasion is not neglected ; 
every person intimately conversant with this metropolis, 
must'feel the infinite good derived from the schools that 
have arisen in Dublin with the modern growth of 
opulence, and in which are taught the principles of a 
religion already familiar and acceptable to the pupils. 


SECTION 


78 


/ 





SECTION IV. 

S * 

Tht probable Amount and most effectual Method of 

Expenditure . 

So lon£ as the state shall deem it expedient to decline 
the service, aud restrict the civil ambition, of the Roman 
Catholic laity; above all, so long as certain corporate 
bodies and individuals feel themselves able, and are 
inclined, to make an exasperating display of dislike, 
suspicion, and superiority; so long it must in the course 
of things be expected, that considerable irritation will 
prevail in Ireland, and that every measure proceeding 
from government shall be regarded with a certain 
jealousy. I do not presume, at this moment, to penetrate 
into the reasons of state which seem to prefer apparent 
trifles to the most substantial advantage ; which, over¬ 
looking the means of bringing a people into action, 
rest upon the worst and most objectionable passions of 
a party. I do not urge these things, nor should I 
touch upon them, were it not, earnestly and for its own 
sake, to call the property of* Ireland to revise its misap¬ 
prehensions—but whilst a temper unfortunately subsists, 
which every man must regret who loves his country, 
that delicacy of interfering with the Roman Catholic 
clergy, which under any circumstance would be re¬ 
quired to a certain degree, becomes eminently essential. 
To spare and preserve the confidence of the people, the 
actual current of their humours, must he consulted. 

Partial 




I 


79 

Partial favours to the Homan Catholic body will, no 
doubt, be sullenly received, whilst the public pride is 
wounded by the existence of a part (although compara¬ 
tively an insignificant one) of the ancient system. But 
thepr e sent topic of our discussion is no boon to the 
Roman Catholic body ; it is no question of their politics; 
if it were, I should probably feel as other men on the 
subject of an unsatisfactory compromise ; it is the for¬ 
mation of a public mind, and the settlement of the 
country. Such objects are not to be necessarily laid 
aside, or even postponed, until the main concerns of the 
Catholics of Ireland are sufficiently explained, and 
understood to be favourably determined ; but if our 
government cannot venture to seize and turn the 
public sentiment with the greatest possible dexterity, 
it should at least avoid ostentation ; the measure must 
be admitted by intelligent observers to be provident 
and circumspect, but will not, in the actual state of 
feeling-, be reputed kind or disinterested. No man of 
reflection in Ireland is to be instructed, that those wdio 
represent the authority of the state do not participate 
in the conduct that is offensive to the people ; the vulgar 
will, and do, form a different association of ideas, and 
from the acts and temper of persons who are intrusted 
with power, or who assume it, they are ready to draw 
inferences as to the entire complexion of government, 
A royal bounty, scattered at this moment indiscrimi¬ 
nately among the Roman Catholic clergy of Ireland, 
would, so far as my reflection and enquiries enable me 
to judge, utterly frustrate its intended object ; govern-? 
ment could best accomplish the desirable purposes it 
must have in view, and best provide for the public 
welfare, by taking into its own hands the remuneration 
of the superior clergy, and interfering with the inferiors 

but 


80 


but indirectly and remotely. Commit them to the zeal 
of wealthy Roman Catholics, and to the policy of liberal, 
opulent, and enlightened Protestants, who are interested 
in, and feel for, the settlement ol Ireland, and the secu¬ 
rity and stability of the empire. From such persons the 
condescension would he acceptable and endearing ; it 
would in truth proceed from their hands with peculiar 
grace and efficacy. The heads of the state may com¬ 
municate an impulse to that zeal—they may illuminate 
and direct that policy. 

I do not take upon me to determine, whether the 
present moment is suited to an arrangement for the 
superior class. Without such arrangement the plan will 
certainly be defective ; but I should think, that the 
concern of the parochial clergy is more urgent, and 
might be ventured upon, even although circumstances do 
not allow of the comprehensive good, that embraces the 
order in its intire relations. By the superior class I 
mean the bishops and such principals of each diocese, 
as may be pointed out by local circumstances and 
necessities. These persons ought, I apprehend, to be 
brought into contact, or very nearly so, with govern¬ 
ment. You cannot extend either your bounty or your 
inspection to every individual ; but through the medium 
of a few, you may infuse into the whole a certain ele¬ 
vation of mind and sentiment; they must for that 
purpose be withdrawn from the necessity of obscure and 
inglorious drudgery—the higher pretensions must be 
rewarded, else they will not be encouraged or attracted. 
By proposing such prizes as merit or service may expect 
to attain, you will connect the Roman Catholic clergy 
with the state; the rotation of preferment will direct 
the views ol every aspiring and intelligent mind to that 
authority, by which the preferments are distributed, or 


&t least supported, and in them you have guides which 
every other man will follow, and models upon which he 
will be habitually taught to form his character. There 
iire those who will, perhaps, expect from zeal and super¬ 
natural assistance every good that is attainable ; but zeal 
in our world is certainly on the decline, and the scope 
of this argument is by human means to consult human 
objects. I cannot expect that such characters shall be 
formed, much less that such a turn of mind shall prevail, 
as the present state of man requires, if the highest 
rate of preferment lies beneath what the supercilious 
will call moderate ; it would be presumption in a 
private person, and it would be invidious, to attempt 
details ; such must be the province of the statesman, 
who will proceed with superior views, and lights, and 
means of correct judgment. In a matter which has 
obviously employed my thoughts, I may venture to 
present a hint :—It seems to me that an annual sum of 
12,000b, distributed in superior preferments, will enable 
government to give great satisfaction, and to effect the 
objects that are desired, with full as much liberality as 
the case requires. The amount is not considerable in 
the gross, nor can it become extravagant in the distri¬ 
bution ; but it is to be observed, that it is dealt out in 
annuities to single men, whose demand may be less 
than if they were fathers or husbands. The arrange¬ 
ment is also combined with very flattering advantages of 
situation. A Roman Catholic clergyman, residing in 
the principal town, or amongst the most polished 
society of his district, called to an eminent station 
among his own order, and exempted from the necessity 
of mercenary or degrading applications, will attract to 
his character a very enviable degree of deference and 
veneration. There are duties .discharged by this body 

m of 


82 


of men, and privations, which they impose upon them* 
selves, for which money can never be a recompence ; 
the reverential feeling of mankind is the proper retri¬ 
bution ; but this feeling is never so animated or so 
complete, as when those who tender the reward are 
not called upon for any meaner tribute. 

The dereliction of duties is the evil to be apprehended 
from an easy independence , but this superior class of 
clergymen are held by other ties—they are placed in 
stations sufficiently conspicuous to be generally observed* 
and to feel the full weight of responsibility to the public 
judgment ; they are further guarded by a sense of the 
character they are to sustain, and by the habit of those 
qualities, on the ground of which they may be sup¬ 
posed to have been promoted. There can be no great 
risk in separating the daily expectations of men from 
their daily exertions, when you can calculate with cer¬ 
tainty upon motives which are more elevated. Under 
other circumstances there are, however, limits to this 
confidence ; the policy must be different with regard 
to persons, who have been less proved and less tried, 
and are not placed so much in the way of observation 
and inspection. Many will certainly be found to require 
no further incentive than the impulse of duty and of 
conscience, and the number of such will be encreased 
by the advantage of a more sedulous education ; but in 
laying down the scheme of an arrangement, of which 
man is the subject, we can proceed up » that alone 
which experience shews to have been the ordinary and 
accustomed law of human conduct. 

For the parpehial clergy it has been propounded to 
lay an assessment upon the lands, such as is generally 
practised for our local expences. This method appears 
to be very fair ; the objections to it, are however strong, 

and ? 


I 


83 

and, as it seems to me, decisive. The priest falls into 
the contrary extreme from his present condition, and is 
rendered too independent ; with his own flock he would 
be regarded as a tax-gatherer, and classed with the 
hearth-money-man and exciseman. The inferior Protes¬ 
tant land owners would clamour outrageously against 
this addition to their fixed taxes, and, with respect to 
the superior order, it will I think be found, that this 
mode would not prove either so cheap or so convenient., 
as the sacrifice I shall propose hereafter. 

Another plan, } T ct more simple, and which was said 
to have been favourably considered by persons whose 
judgment deserves the highest deference, was to issue 
pensions to the Roman Catholic clergy from the public 
revenue; some proposed that those annuities should 
be equal to the probable amount of the usual receipts, 
with a condition to suppress the offerings paid by 
the people. If it were designed to purchase out and 
annihilate the influence of this body, then might either 
of these proposals be adopted. With respect to this 
latter project, I do not see how it would be possible to 
prevent the pious zeal of some Catholics from indulging 
itself in liberality to the church ; and if they do not give 
to the most unexceptionable, they will to others, who 
will seek to ingratiate themselves by fomenting the 
very temper which you are desirous to counteract and 
to abolish. This precisely is the case which I have 
already anticipated, of public money, worse than thrown 
away, expended to produce consequences of the most 
tremendous mischief. But to the clergy themselves, this 
mode of payment would soon be found to be neither 
beneficial nor satisfactory ; I think it would be declined, 
not for a reason which has been foolishly circulated, 
that the Pope has issued orders to the Catholic priests of 

m 2 Ire- 


84 


Ireland, not to accept of stipends from our government $ 
the Pope does not clip into the concerns of remote beg¬ 
gary ; but were he so absurd as to issue this extrajudicial 
monition, I can very safely affirm, that it would bo 
utterly disregarded. I think they would decline the 
stipend, because any sum which it is probable the govern¬ 
ment would propose, or could afford to set apart for them, 
would not compensate for the subtraction of their dues, 
and yet less for the loss of influence. 

Grant that they accepted the boon, several would 
undoubtedly neglect their cures, put the stipends in their 
pockets, and with this assistance^ become good graziers 
or substantial farmers. Now, on the state of things 
befofe us, what, let me ask, would be the consequence, 
if only in ten years one-third or one-fourth were to sink 
into inactivity ? The opportunity of improving the state 
of the public mind, and of drawing the lower orders to 
better and calmer habits and to some decree of settle- 
ment is lost irrecoverably ; so far as the neglect extended, 
the people are left to shift for themselves, with colder 
hopes and prospects every way more unfavourable. 

I can speak on this subject from some little degree of 
experience. Among the hints' which formed the outline 
of the present publication, and which I privately com¬ 
municated to some friends when this subject was formerly 
agitated, a scale of distribution to the amount of 100,0001. 
was attempted; my subsequent opportunities of commu¬ 
nication have convinced me, that the parties would feel 
by no means satisfied with the proportion which, upon 
this scale, might devolve to each individual; it would not 
compensate for the loss of influence, for the reputation of 
being pensioners of the government, and for what, on 
the presumption that they were otherwise sufficiently 
provided for, would be with-held by the congregations. 

Now 


65 


Now in the present state of expence and demand for 
money, would administration encumber itself to provide 
a fund of 100,0001. ? And what, if the minister consented 
to take that step, would be the consequence? 

All those persons, whom the habitual jealousy of 
former times, or the accidental humours of the present, 
have formed to regard the Romish Clergy with antipathy, 
would be incessant in their outcry. If potatoes became 
dear or crops failed; if rent were advanced, or taxes 
accumulated; every failure and misfortune would be ex*> 
hibited to a credulous people, as proceeding totally from 
this payment to the clergy. I recollect a few years 
since, a tax laid on either salt or leather was, in a certain 
part of Ireland, represented and fully believed, to have 
been imposed solely to provide a fund for the pension of. 
a lady of that county, whose husband had rendered him¬ 
self obnoxious. There is some malevolence in this 
promptness to be deceived on public proceedings, but 
we must take it into account;—withdraw the popular sup¬ 
port, and what becomes of the Roman Catholic clergy ? 
They are hated, envied, or at best regarded with indif¬ 
ference, by the most active and prominent persons in the 
country. The priests would be baited and worried in 
every moment of ill-temper; they would become a stand¬ 
ing jest and banter, a mark at which would be discharged 
the spleen of every man in the community. The cleri¬ 
cal order of the establishment, even when it is not loved, 
will undoubtedly be protected, because its benefices con¬ 
fer wealth and power, and are occasionally objects of 
enjoyment and.pursuit to the principal families. On be¬ 
half of a poor and pains-taking ministry, there is no 
counterpoise, besides the favour of the people, to the 
hostility of party, and the malice of irreligion. Believe 
me, this body is composed of men too clearsighted, and 

too 


86 




too fully apprized of the ground on which they are ph^ 
ced, to be lightly drawn from their asylum. 

In Leinster, Munster and Connaught, the priests 
must necessarily be small farmers; a man, bound by his 
situation to live in the country, cannot otherwise subsist 
with any degree of facility or comfort; he has not 
villages in which to reside, nor contiguous markets where 
he can resort for the supply of his necessities. Now I 
would propose, taking advantage of this circumstance, 
to annex a few acres of ground to every cure, either free 
from rent, or upon very moderate terms, which, under 
certain regulations, should pass in succession to the 
Roman Catholic pastor for the time being. If he possess¬ 
ed in himself the means of building a suitable house, 
arrangements might be entered into for procuring com¬ 
pensation from his successor; in case he did not possess 
these means, he ought to be assisted ; and such, I trust, 
will be the feelings of the country, whenever a calm and 
dispassionate explanation shall point out the importance 
of the Roman Catholic priesthood, and the propriety of 
contributing to its accommodation, that I have no appre- 
sion of backwardness in affording that assistance. 

4 

As to the supposed hostility of the Protestants, I 
cannot rate it very high, when I do not regard it an 
obstacle to a plan, which persons of that description must 
voluntarily execute; the truth is, that it exists in the 
inferior classes of that communion, who might think 
themselves affected by a tax, but who would have no 
pretence to interfere with a benevolence that was not 
compulsory. What if the example were set, and that 
to help the priests became as much a fashion as formerly 
to harass them? In the present and past times, adven¬ 
turers, or those who seek to turn the follies or misfortunes 
of the country to profit, setup religion as a pretext, and 

weak, 


Vv'eak men follow them; persons in easy condition, when 
the season permitted them to direct their actions calmly,, 
have seldom hesitated to appear liberal and considerate 
to the popular prepossessions. 

I really do not think, that Protestants of any property 
or education, in the proportion of one in twenty, enter¬ 
tain that decided indisposition to their Catholic fellow- 
subjects which is frequently mentioned, and which has 
perhaps been considered, consulted, nay, yielded to 
beyond what on any view of the matter such a sentiment 
could merit. The feeling of that class is a sort of care¬ 
less contempt for what they have never taken the pains to 
understand; they see before tliem the religion of pea¬ 
sants, what a superficial reader will learn to sneer at from 
Mr. Hume and Mr. Gibbon. So far the recommendation 
and inducement to undertake enquiry and research are 
not powerful or striking; the importance of the system 
has not been felt, for its details and relations have never 
been explained; it has remained buried under the obloquy 
that arose from the faults, and the contumely occasioned 
by the condition of its followers. These faults have 
never been traced to the proper cause, the entire matter 
has not become the subject of reflection. 

Be the number more or less, a great part are drawn; 
by accidental matters, into this unfortunate alienation 
from the interest of their epuntry ; this is no natural or 
lono- acquired disposition ; it results from the misrepre¬ 
sentations with which people are stunned; it proceeds 
from those pestilential libels, with which a few gentle¬ 
men of our metropolis think fit to poison society; they 
call themselves Anti-jacobins, whilst they are stirring up 
the Subject against the Throne, and recruiting adherents 
for Bonaparte. It vtill astonish the world to perceive how 
rapidly this puny, presuming, and mischievous faction 

will 


ss 


'will moulder away, whenever government shall deterrAine^ 
(as surely must at length be the case, where the public 
interest points so obviously) to treat it with steady dis¬ 
countenance. , 

The farms proposed, ought to run from fifteen to 
about twenty-five acres. I do not so much recommend 
them to be rent free, as the priest might be induced by 
the ease of that situation to let the ground, and content 
himself with the income ; this step would involve him in 
the vices of the pensioning system. I count upon the 
activity of the individual, as a main and most valuable 
part of the provision ; valuable, as it determines his exer¬ 
tions and his residence in the centre of his duties; and 
valuable, as it tends to make his situation more comfor¬ 
table with less burden to the public. Let me suppose the 
priest to be charged with a rent, according to circumstan¬ 
ces, of from one-fourth to one-half of the actual and cur¬ 
rent value; his residence on the spot, his personal atten¬ 
tion, and his facilities for cultivation, would render the 
situation more convenient and more desirable, than if he 
were to receive a direct annuity of from sixty to eighty 
pounds; and yet the entire object may be very well ac¬ 
complished at an annual expence often pounds per parish; 
in the project there is this additional advantage to the 
Roman Catholic clergy, that the proceeding is so confor¬ 
mable to the practice of the country, as to appear in no 
respect extraordinary. The confidence of the people 
would not be interrupted, because the hand of superior 
authority would not be visible—so far indeed as the mat¬ 
ter might appear to be a spontaneous kindness, issuing 
from the gentry of the country, the effect must be con¬ 
ciliatory. 

« 

I would at the same time leave unmolested, the oc¬ 
casional dues oi the parish priest; even the annual offer¬ 
ings 


89 


i^gsl would allow him to collect, trusting tothe pride arising 
troin independence, that he will abstain from that craving* 
and cringing solicitation> which deforms at present the as¬ 
pect of that ministry. It cannot be alleged, that the peo¬ 
ple are incommoded by the trifle which the priests receive 
from them ; the payment falls mostly on the farmer, who 
is very competent to bear it. 

There is a good deal of jealous and punctilious vanity 
in the character oi the Irish ; they are flattered, and con¬ 
sider the clergyman their own, when the option is left to 
them of a voluntary retribution for his service; at least 
the contrary extreme would be resented, and would 
sever the pastor too widely from his congregation. It 
cannot be frequently enough repeated, that religion, and 
every feeling and sentiment connected with it, require at 
the time, and in the country before us, to be touched 
with an exquisitely delicate hand, and w T atched and che¬ 
rished with a fostering attention. I do not object to a 
contribution, which attaches the parties to each other, 
whilst 1 consider it injurious to the public, that this should 
constitute the sole dependance of the receiver. 

Such farms as I have described, adapted to the con¬ 
ditions and necessities of the country parish priests, w ould 
be obtained in great number and for very trifling consider¬ 
ation: some cases might exact a small abatement of the 

O 

1 

improved value; it would suffice in other instances, that 
the proprietor of the soil should demise, at the actual rate, 
ground, either partially reclaimed, or Which had been 
neglected; the tenure here would be the sole expence to 
the one party, and encouragement to the other. 1 he 
country priests arc usually the sons of farmers, early form¬ 
ed to the management of land, and among the very best 
practical agriculturists in the kingdom. I be leases 
ought to be taken in the name of trustees, for a long term 

of 


N 


90 


of years, suppose from sixty to ninety-one years ; a rever¬ 
sion would remain in the family of the grantor, and the 
church would be prevented from becoming unnecessarily 
opulent in the event of such changes, as arise in land, or 
depreciation of money. Upon that tenure a house might 
be built, and lasting improvements entered into; the 
clergyman would have ample profit in the progressive rise 
on the land, wherrsubjected to careful and assiduous cul¬ 
tivation ; the landlord would have a good tenant, a valua¬ 
ble improvement on his estate, and the permanent advan¬ 
tage to his tenantry, that a striking and impressive exam¬ 
ple of correct demeanour is brought home to their own 
rank, and familiarized with their daily observation. 
There are very few landlords, whom a sense of the pro¬ 
priety of the measure, a desire to be favourably consi¬ 
dered by their tenants, and a wish to consult or com¬ 
pliment the inclination of that body, would not lead to 
a greater sacrifice than an inconsiderable abatement ; in 
fact, landlords, generally absentees, have in an immense 
number of instances, already manifested a wish to anti¬ 
cipate this project. Farms have been often given to 
the parish priest, which were designed as a provision 
for his situation, but the leases having l>een made to 
the individual, and not to trustees, the successor was 
ousted by the representatives of the deceased incumbent 5 
to avoid this mistake, a still greater number have given 
a few acres of land on tenancies at will; lands in the 
greater part of Ireland, in order to be brought to profit, 
require a more operose and extensive cultivation than 
any man will undertake on this tenure. 

The state of society varies so much in different 
parts of our island, that it is next to impossible to form a 
general regulation of uniform applicability. In the nor¬ 
thern district, the Roman Catholics are the poorest of 

the 


.91 


tne people, and the connexion with the clergy is a charge 
which they support with difficulty. In the fourth, this 
connexion is a bond of endearing interest, which it would 
prove injurious to violate; the former instance is an excep¬ 
tion to the universal maxims we have laid down, and ape- 
tiuiai case, to which what 1 have offered, and shall mention 
as national regulations, could not possibly be extended : 
here a royal bounty might with propriet y be bestowed ; 
the people know little ot the politics that agitate the un- 
pei ranks, or that prevail in the great towns and opuleiff 
districts ; by them the favour would be received as a kind 
solicitude, a provident and charitable condescension. 

Again, in the northern district, population is so very 
thick, that these allotments are not to be procured, for 
every spot of ground is appropriated ; towns or villages 
abound, and markets are convenient. Whatever accommo¬ 
dations the country or the situation of the individual af¬ 
fords, are to be obtained for money ; a direct payment 
might in that district be therefore accepted ; another po¬ 
pular religion prevails in the northern counties, ynd the 
emulation between the two sects would counteract that 
inclination to remissness, which is otherwise to be appre¬ 
hended in the case of a fixed and unimproving stipend. 

The case is different where there is no such rivalship, 
where land is not so minutely divided, where it is easily 
to be had, and where the priest must, on any terms, have 
some dealing of that nature. Another circumstance 
serves further to recommend this mode of assisting the 
Roman Catholic ministry :--Every parish priest, on his 
appointment to a country cure, has to seek out a resi¬ 
dence ; the farm of the predecessor, if it were of any 
value, having passed to his relatives. In order to procure 
this accommodation, together with that little farm, with- 


V o 
IN 


out 


92 


out which he cannot provide the articles * of inclispensa* 
ble consumption, he is constrained to enter into competi¬ 
tion, and outbid some of his parishioners. Now this pre¬ 
cisely is the offence most heinous in the eyes of the lower 
Irish, and most revolting to their feelings; no incident 
can be more exactly calculated to divide the parish into 
factions, and to diminish the future credit of the clergy- 
man : it must be a very great improvement in the condi¬ 
tion of the individual, if on being named to his cure, he 
were immediately to find his most essential want supplied, 
and to enter into possession of his most material accom¬ 
modation. 

When the details of this arrangement come under in 
vcstigation, I am of opinion that a public good so immense 
will be found practicable, and that it really may be ac¬ 
complished, under a rational management, almost without 
any expence whatsoever. Present the object to the public; 
let zealous Catholics he satisfied that the trust they repose 
will be faithfully discharged; convince public spirited and 
politic men of every description, how momentous is the 
utility of the undertaking, and it will execute itself. 
Make it evident to the great landed proprietors (and sure¬ 
ly the task is not difficult) that the true education which 
Ireland requires, and which has so often been attempted 
in vain by other means, is to uphold the Roman Catholic 
church, to reconcile its followers, to new model its cler^v 
or at least to ensure in them a cast and bias favourable to 
the present civil system; let them be convinced, that 

from 


* The priest must keep a horse, he must have his own hay, corn, gar- 
den produce, &c. &c. It appears to me, that twenty acres of land, unde* 
'thrilty management, will supply the frugal wants of a small family. 


from this enterprize, and this alone, they can expect that 
regeneration, that correction of the popular mind and 
manners, which is essential to the improvement, nay to 
the security of their property; guided by their own in¬ 
terest, where a more noble motive shall fail, it is impossi¬ 
ble, but that they must be brought to a general and 
effectual co-operation. 

The advantages of this arrangement to the parish 
priests would be, first a certainty, fixed and secure against 
all contingencies; next, they would be at no charge for 
their chapel, and they would be saved the assessment 
which they at present pay to their respective bishops, that 
is, if the crown took into its own hands this member of 
the establishment. 

I do not think that the details of this institution 
ought to be managed by the government or by its officers. 
Government ought not to be more than a party assisting 
and co-operating. The proper method appears to me, to 
institute for the purpose a voluntary association ; I am 
even inclined, perhaps I go too far, that the members of 
it should not be exclusively Roman Catholics, but they 
undoubtedly ought to be men strongly impressed with the 
duty of preserving the state, and with a sense of the im¬ 
portance of the Roman Catholic religion, of the respect 
which is due to it, and of the decorum with which it ought 
to be conducted. There are many societies in Ireland for 
public purposes, any of which may serve as a model; 
that which I propose ought to consist of many members, 
jest a few r might obtain a dangerous influence, and they 
ought not to be selected from any particular district, as 
those places which were overlooked, might lessen thei r 
interest in, and become cold to, the institution. 

The government might be a liberal subscriber to such 
an establishment, and patronize, though it did not con- 


94 


duct it. The business of the society should be to collect 
and receive donations, to facilitate the patriotic intentions 
of those who were willing to make leases gratuitously, to 
treat with others who should require consideration, to as¬ 
sign stipends in money where farms are not to be procur¬ 
ed, or where other circumstances militate against that 
arrangement. In those parts where the lands have been 
brought to a high state of improvement, the ingenuity of 
the receiver could not augment the profitable produce to 
the extent that might be necessary, and it were too much 
to expect a considerable abatement in the rent without 
compensation. It might afford another object of concern 
to this society, to provide proper accommodation for di¬ 
vine worship, in case this object was not to be attained by 
the means which I have already indicated. 

The great towns must be of course excluded from a 
mode of provision, which is applicable only to rural eco¬ 
nomy. But in these places it is as much as elsewhere, 
incumbent to introduce certainty, and to obviate depend¬ 
ence ! The means of attaining these objects, still avoiding 
to clash with the influence and consideration that are ne¬ 
cessary to be preserved, must be a matter of special deli¬ 
beration. The annuities, which I recommended to assign 
to the clergymen, next in degree to bishops, would fall 
very much to the lot of the parish priests in the principal 
towns and cities. It would indeed be prudent, and aid 
the general plan, to give this direction to the royal 
bounty. 

Another claim upon the public, of a very direct na¬ 
ture, which has continued to the present d;ty to be 
strangely, indeed I think reprehensiblv, neglected, might 
here be turned to advantage : I mean the duties discharged 
by Roman Catholic clergymen, in jails, hospitals, and 
such public institutions, and the attendance on the mili¬ 
tary, 


95 


tary ; since they have been iudulged with the exercise tif 
this religion. The instances are extremely rare of any 
recoin pence for these painful and dangerous services. The 
Protestant clergymen have stipends assigned upon such 
establishments 5 their attendance however, is neces¬ 
sarily confined to a smaller number, for the poor, as 
e already have observed, are seldom Protestants \ and 
even when the assistance is required, the manner of ad¬ 
ministering it imposes much less of irksome duty.. The 
circumstance of confession alone makes an infinite differ¬ 
ence ; the clergyman must sit for a length of time beside 
the sick bed, in a contagious atmosphere ; he must inhale 
from the mouth of the infected person, a breath tainted 
with d isease, and rendered more noxious by being con¬ 
veyed in close whispers. Several comforts ought to be 
supplied, even as the means of palliating illness and pre¬ 
venting infection. The duty of Catholic Ordinary of 
Newgate has hitherto been discharged without reward ; 
and some time back, when a distemper raged in that pri¬ 
son, the officiating clergyman contracted the fever, and 
perished. There is in every county in Ireland, and in all 
the large towns, a prison, at least one infirmary, and a 
barrack. Salaries are justly due for attendance on these 
places. It would be well to encourage and reward the 
promptitude to discharge such duties, although sickness 
might not require the actual service. The salaries to be al¬ 
lotted might go in aid of die assistants, who in large town9 
are particularly indispensable. I do not apprehend that 
these appointments would be expected to run higher than 
from twenty to thirty pounds a year ; and only one de¬ 
partment, the care of the military, would be a burden to 
be defrayed by government. Whether the project adopt* 4 
ed were that of pensions from the state, of land, or the 
mixture of both, 1 would make it'go hand in hand with 

* the 


tire reduction of parishes; the one measure might afford 
a compensation to those who should suffer by the other, 
and serve to facilitate their compliance. 

My diffused remarks have very much anticipated 
the consequences of this institution ; some are of such 
magnitude—they are so requisite to compose the public 
mind of Ireland, to establish a fair and proper correspon¬ 
dence between the feelings of the people and that order 
of things and those authorities which it is their fortune to 
obey, and at once their duty and their interest to cherish, 
that I must again sligiitlj 7 touch and review these topics. 
They know little of human nature who imagine, that in 
any age the church possessed unlimited power over its 
followers—they know very little of Ireland, who calcu¬ 
late, that such is the temper that actually reigns amongst 
us; the indirect influence of ecclesiastical institutions has 
at all times been very great, and is more or less consider¬ 
able, in proportion as the subjects to whom it is applied 
are more or less enlightened. The clergy, and the prac¬ 
tices they sanction, do certainly act upon mankind as the 
first and most powerful instrument. If civilization is to be 
produced, if manners are to be amended, hither you must 
resort, not perhaps with the certainty of success, but 
surely with a probability greater than breaks upon you 
from any other quarter. It is just the same as in private 
life, when you desire to fashion the individual, and to draw 
him nearer to flie perfection of correct demeanor, you 
attend to the intercourse which he principally appears to 
value. 

The error of our internal economy in . Ireland is, 
that we expect the effect of magic from the clerical func¬ 
tion, at a moment, when of all others, it must be impo¬ 
tent and inoperative; when the people are led by their 
folly, their feelings, or the villainy of imposition, to be 
, guilty 


91 


guilty of acts of outrage, then we look to that character, 
in peaceable times we had derided—these things 

o 

are all in an inverted order; the priest might go very far 
to preserve good temper, and to guard against the first 
approaches of delusion or discontent, if he were in time 
held up to respect and supported ; but there is an end cf 
nis means and of his usefulness, so soon as the emergency 
arises. Popular tumult is the ascendant of the most fu¬ 
rious spirits, the decline of influence and depression of 
the peaceable; it denotes that the power of the latter 
over the multitude is totally subdued, and that of the for¬ 
mer, by some means or other, predominant. This state of 
things may be averted by rational precaution or preach¬ 
ing that will recal the sway of reason, or calm the agi¬ 
tated surface of society. 

I do not mean to apply myself to the ordinary faults 
of ignorance and a low condition; among the poor many 
will envy the rich, and many will be inclined to violate 
the sanctuary of opulence—the ordinary laws of every 
country are sufficiently strong to coerce these dispositions; 
I am not a projector so wild, as that I should expect to 
banish them from Ireland; what presses upon my mind, 
are the great political deformities of our national character, 
the jealousy entertained of government, the promptitude 
to revolt, the ear that is open to every delusive tale, the 
eye that is turned to every enemy, and all these things oc¬ 
curring in a rank, and among a description which is per¬ 
fectly out of the reach of these disabiities,in which our laws 
incomprehensibly persist; amongst men, upon whom those 
disabilities impose no privation, and who cannot be sup¬ 
posed to, and in fact who do not, essentially sympathize 
with the parties affected. I do not concur with those, who 
consider the Irish peasant to be eminently destitute; I ra¬ 
ther incline to think, that his means are not deficient, but 


© 


owing 


98 


owing to a depression, and slovenly turn, of mine, lie ci¬ 
ther does not apply these means, or does not call forth hi3 
resources. I shall not dissemble that the causes oi this 
condition are sufficiently present to my mind; but this 
is a new and extensive argument, in which I shall not 
venture to engage at the close of another equally arduous 
investigation ; it must at any time be reluctantly taken 
up—it mixes too much frith the language of reproach :— 
it affects men, whom to blame is painful and ungracious ; 
men, estimable generally ; who have been misled by the 
condition and circumstances in which they were placed : 
who have erred, because they neglected to examine and 
to weigh what few of us look into, the relations by which 
we are surrounded—but harshness of discipline and out- 
ragedp r ejudices never can be out of view, when we con¬ 
template the state and internal economy of Ireland ; to 
account for the disaffection and disquietude of a country 
thus situated, there is no need to suppose or resort to any 
process of reasoning ; if a populace ever does reason, or 
if they did so in the instance before us, we cannot be sur¬ 
prized that, however innocent the heads of the state, go¬ 
vernment in general should be confounded with those, 
who pretended to espouse its cause, and boasted that they 
wielded its means and displayed its energies, or that a 
determined hostility to the one should produce and pre¬ 
serve alienation from the other. These thoughts do not 
refer exclusively to the times that come near our own ; 
the retrospect extends to at least one hundred years, 
during which period the wounds of Ireland have never 
been permitted to close. Was all, then, error at one 
side and good conduct on the other? Assuredly it was. 
not ; so much mismanagement could never have taken 
place without producing reciprocal faults and follies ; but 
the agressor, in every quarrel, must have the larger share 


99 


of blame, and he, whose forbearance could compose the 
strife, is culpable for its continuance. 

Two great revolutions in legislation have taken place 
within a few years, the repeal of the popery laws, so far 
as it has gone, (and certainly it includes very much the 
gross population of the country) and the Union : These 
measures, the first by diffusing property and political 
rights among the lower classes ; the second by reducing 
the power and encreasing the responsibility of the gentry, 
are calculated to draw the inferior people from their gro¬ 
velling debasement; the process of this improvement 
must necessarily have been slow, but it has sustained infi¬ 
nite check and delay by the Rebellion, or rather by the 
colouring which a few writers have given to an event, of 
which the contrivers can never be sufficiently execrated, 
or the followers too much pitied.—Now, more than ever, 
great assistance is demanded ; much is to be borne up, 
and much to be counteracted. The temper is first to be 
removed which these atrocious incendiaries created, and 
which some people are perhaps fond to cling to, as a plank 
in a ship-wreck, feeling that by the Union the ground 
on which they stood is very much altered, and that they 
are likely to sustain a considerable diminution of conse¬ 
quence, to he in fact reduced to the level pf their natural 
pretensions. This state of things cannot be of long con¬ 
tinuance ; it is the ultimate struggle of declining conse¬ 
quence, which we are to expect to he not other than per¬ 
tinacious. I can very clearly discern the formation of 
a mind more vigorous and firm amongst men, who hereto¬ 
fore scarcely presumed to raise their heads. I have seen 
several instances of legal resistance to overbearing con¬ 
duct, of arrogance checked, and of severity called to ac¬ 
count, which the parties would not have dared to venture 
upon, whilst the offenders acted under the shelter of our 

o 3 formal* 


✓ 


I 


* 100 

forme r constitution, and of the manners which it sanction¬ 
ed. I do not despair of seeing the peasant of the south 
of Ireland assert his personal and civil rights unprotected\ 
against a gentleman, in a regular course of justice*. When 

we 

* The following anecdote, taken at random, will serve to exemplify 
the practice of those parts of Ireland, where the manners and relations 
of life have been vitiated by either the direct or indirect consequences of the 
popery system. Some time back, a turbulent disposition manifested itself in 
part of Munster; a country gentleman, a humane, popular, and intelligent 
man, was desirous, if possible, to preserve the c-ommon people of his neigh¬ 
bourhood from being involved in the mischief. He went on Sunday to the 
parish chapel, as the most convenient place in which he could meet a number 
of people, and the best adapted to warn and exhort them. After service, he 
drew a good part of the congregation together, and spoke to them collectively 
and individually with considerable effect and impression. Whilst he was ac¬ 
tually proceeding, as a magistrate, to administer the oath of allegiance, he 
observed a bustle at the distant part of the croud, and a confused murmur 

reached him that Mr.-was pressing their horses; the fact actually was 

that a neighbouring magistrate, who ha'd to transmit prisoners to the county 
jail, being at a loss to mount some of his party, calmly bethought himself of 
taking those on which the country people brought their families to Mass, 
without ever calculating how the feelings of the people would be affected, or 
making the least account of the illegality of the proceeding. My friend pa¬ 
cified the tumult by ordering from his own stable the number of horses that 
were requisite ; if he had not fortunately been at hand to interfere, an affray 
would probably have ensued ; the country people never would have dreamed 
of letting the horses go, and seeking reparation by a civil action, they would 
have defended their propeity with their clubs, the magistrate and his party 
would probably have been put to flight, and his prisoners liberated ; he would 
have directly ran to Dublin to expose his zeal and his sufferings ; the provo¬ 
cation would have been studiously concealed both from government and the 
public, and the facts given with ail the ostentation of a wanton and unpro¬ 
voked rebellion. It is thus S;r Richard Musgrave and our other marvellous 
story tellers have swelled their legendary narratives, and given a most inaccu¬ 
rate representation ci the state and temper of Ireland, by detailing incidents 
with the omission of the circumstances that led to them. There is not the 
least doubt that the resistance to which the people were disposed, and which 
was thus happily prevented, would have been an intemperate act, and by np 
ffceans so prudent as the other sober and regular proceeding; but who that 

irritates 



101 


we shall arrive at this point of confidence in the law, and 
familiarity with its dispensations, then will I defy the ene¬ 
mies of the British Crown, and call Ireland impregnable-* 
I know not whom these sentiments on the Union will 
please, though I am perfectly aware of the many to whom 
they are like to prove unacceptable; that great measure 

has 

irritates a mob is to expect prudence and temperance? I apprehend that vio¬ 
lence might with reason have been calculated upon, fiom almost any men 
in the like circumstances. 

I have related this transaction in order to place a picture of the real 
state of things, not only before persons in England, but before others near 
home, who are misled as essentially and as grossly—the Protestants, 
solely conversant with large cities or with the non-Catholic parts of 
the north of Ireland. It is eternally pressed upon them, and with such 
assiduity as to have gained the belief of many, that the unquiet state 
of certain parts of Ireland arises from fanaticism, and is fomented by 
religious zeal and feelings, all which exist only in the minds of those who 
make the assertion. What belongs to exasperation is ascribed to the agency 
of opinions, and the artifice and ambition of ecclesiastics. With respect to 
the fact I have quoted, undeniably few would be found to imitate the violence 
intended by Mr.-, but none would have combined or exerted them¬ 

selves to punish it. 

To record circumstances of this nature would be a waste of time, and 
perhaps in some respects censurable, if it were a sudden heat or transitory 
violence ; but if these be settled habits of acting, and if similar incidents oc¬ 
cur so often as to keep alive an irritation of the popular mind, the matter de¬ 
serves to be explored ; still more if principles of government erroneous, and 
maxims eternally false, are intended to be built upon the consequences dedu¬ 
ced from such proceedings. It is idle to talk of the settlement of Ireland with¬ 
out a complete and radical correction of our provincial or parochial system. 
With the aid of this correction, I would venture to promise much for the ci¬ 
vil improvement of the country. I may presume upon better means and 
closer observation than the British ladies and gentlemen, who forward Irish 
intelligence to India. There is no want of cordiality with respect to the crown 
and sister nation—our materials for subordination and good government ar« 
admirable. If the Irish were judiciously brought to a good understanding 
with their immediate superiors, they would be found, in point of steady at¬ 
tachment, to be equalled by few members of the empire, and not by any to 
be surpassed in energy. 


% 



102 


has been left to struggle with the difficulties of infancy,, 
not deserted alone by its parents, but even, as if they 
hesitated to recollect their concern in it. In the view, 
which I am accustomed to take of the Union of the 
British legislatures, it would seem capable of being 
rendered the proudest monument to the reputation ol 
its promoters; but satisfied with the achievement, 
they appear not unwilling to consign to oblivion the 
'expediency and policy of the proceeding ; and, at least 
with regard to Ireland, are content it should pass as 
an evil to be acquiesced in from necessity. I cannot 
concur in this fashion; inconsiderable my testimony 
certainly is, but I shall not with-hold it from the merits 
of that act, which, extinguishing our domestic parlia¬ 
ment, gave us a form of government more conformable 
to the feelings, the passions, the interests, and the state 
of property that exists in Ireland. 

It would be difficult to compress in a few pages, the 
objections to our former constitution that easily present 
themselves: We are a nation of parties; the popery 
laws and the convulsions that preceded them, vested the 
influence arising from land, in the hands principally of 
one party; our political institutions conferred upon the 
same persons, in this capacity of the landed interest, 
an almost unbounded authority ; but if such at all times 
w'as a vicious and reprehensible distribution, a change 
of circumstances at length rendered it utterly incom¬ 
patible with the peace and settlement of the country. 
That description of the Irish, who, in this objectionable 
state of things, had been inferior, increased by the opera¬ 
tion of the corn laws, both in number and opulence; the 
breach made in the popery system bestowed upon their ac¬ 
quisitions the advantages of security and permanence; the 
aggregate produced a state of mind, not perhaps more im¬ 
patient 


103 


patient than formerly, of the harsh control which was exer¬ 
cised, but infinitely more prone to counteract and to resist 
it. There was no dominion of opinion; the submission 
w r as merely to power in possession; the persons who 
claimed obedience had for the most part attained their 
eminence within recent memory, and at least in the minds 
of the subject body there was a very full disposition to 
assert equality. As riches accrued to the latter, the 
points of distinction still disappeared; it must always be 
held in view, that the wealthy and intelligent part of the 
Roman Catholics, before the relaxation of the popery 
laws, were in the constant habit of emigration ; the mass 
that remained at home would consequently be induced to 
submit with greater ease to any condition imposed upon 
them; wriien this circumstance was altered, a change in 
the letter of the law could not suffice to adapt the country 
to its novel order and relations; it was requisite to ascend 
higher, to seek the springs and sources of passions and 
of conduct; bv these the character of men is formed, 
and here the impression was to be made when an altera¬ 
tion of character was called for; in a double sense this 
alteration was required ; from the one class, wlio were 
elevated above the condition of equal subjects, and 
from the oilier, w*ho had been infinitely depressed below 
that level ; it by no means follows that one country will 
flourish under an exact transcript of the institutions that 
are applicable to another. r l he parliamentary constitu¬ 


tion of England is the control of its great proprietors, 
but that description had in general abandoned Ireland, 
arid our domestic parlhtoent became a government of 


the second class of property; conscious that its 


title to. 


or tenure of, lead and following, were not of the best 
or most secure description, this body, perhaps with a 
view to turn from itself the speculations oi\ the public* 

w-ere 


104 


were not averse to cherish what has been called religious 
animosities. It undoubtedly is true, that some of the 
first men in the land took an active concern in the politics 
of Ireland, but they were few—they were not checked by 
the diversity of views, and they rather adopted the cha¬ 
racter of the other order then communicated their own. 
I think the Union has improved as much the condition 
of these respective classes as that of the country; it 
has converted an envied and precarious influence into 
steady property, and exchanged that which repelled them 
from, for that which unites them with, the people. 
There is room for congratulation in the change, even to 
the parties themselves; it will prove in time equally 
grateful to the order of private gentlemen, that, removed 
from the temptation and inducement to act a part, which 
I decline to name, they are placed in a situation to live 
henceforward with their tenants and dependants in th e 
estimable and endearing character of friends and bene¬ 
factors. 

There are many points of view in which the reign of 
George III. as it relates to Ireland, appears to resemble 
what was most salutary and laudable in the English 
government of Henry VII. I would place this affair of 
the Union in parallel with the abolition of entails; as 
the benefit of the latter has been, so probably will be tha t 
of the former, more for posterity than for the age in 
which it was transacted. That the result should not 
be altogether instantaneous, is no matter of astonish¬ 
ment, and W’e must* lament that it is not so rapid as 
we had reason to conjecture. The Union was certainly 
a measure of great sacrifices; our portion is to encoun¬ 
ter the regrets and bitternesses which it has occasioned. 
To the second class of property, in many places the 
most eminent, and in all the most active of our resi¬ 
dents, 


105 


dents* the domestic parliament afforded very great ad¬ 
vantages: these have been curtailed, and some stings 
of resentment are natural, which will be the stronger 
as the privation is more immediately felt, and will be 
more openly avowed, in proportion as the great measure 
in question seems to be unpatronized and unprotected. 
It individuals could have been assisted without public 
detriment, I should regret a -change injurious to a 
valuable order, and to respectable members of society ; 
■—I should regret that new impediments have risen to 
cheek the career of aspiring merit. These are personal 
feelings ; many such have been engaged against the 
Union ; many are the subordinate views and projects 
to which it has proved fatal ; opposed to these is the 
cold and remote consideration of national advantage ; 
the murmurs of the persons, who have sustained the 
inconvenience, are loud and near, whilst the public 
good proceeds slowly and unobserved; and those, to 
whom the benefit will accrue, are frequently not in a 
condition to perceive the improvement of their situation, 
never likely to assert or to proclaim it. 

A seat in parliament, under our former constitution, 
was of more importance than at present, as it gave the 
possessor a more immediate and more beneficial sway over 
the measures of government; the number of competitors 
was greater, it included every man of weight in the 
respective counties; the resident landed interest, who 
could determine these competitions, were of course to 
be reciprocally supported; to the lot of this body also 
devolved a great share of the returns for boroughs. I 
think it not extravagant to compute, that one hundred 
persons, composing almost the whole acting aristocracy 
of Ireland, the prime residents, whose situation enabled 
them directly to dictate to the supreme authority, were in 

this 


v 


this manner altogether influenced by the feelings and? 
views of this interest; and that the same class furnished 
to the representative body one hundred and fifty persons, 
who, although not qualified to impose terms on the go¬ 
vernment, were immediately in the way of influencing it 
by their representations. This system formed a com¬ 
pact and irresistible combination of the wealthy against 
their inferiors, deriving a more acrimonious and over¬ 
bearing character, from the temper and turn of thought, 

which, having originated in the popery code, had sub- 

\ 

sisted too long, and become too inveterate to be sup¬ 
planted without difficulty. I shall be excused this 
digression; it is within the scope of my general design 
to unfold the means of improving the condition and 
elevating the spirit of the lower Irish ; and the prospect, 
which the Union opens to us in this respect, appears to 

me, beyond all calculation, promising. We have heard 

\ 

a great deal of what might be done by a domestic par¬ 
liament in suppressing insurrections, but experience ap¬ 
plies exactly the other way. In my judgment, if Lord 
Camden had not been encumbered bv a domestic par¬ 
liament, the conspiracy of 1798 would have been con¬ 
fined to the few caballers in Dublin, with whom it 
originated, and never would have reached the vitals of 
the country; and equally do I think, that if Lord 
Ilardwicke had acted under this influence, the frantic 
fanaticism of an insane young man, which scarcely ex¬ 
tended three miles beyond Dublin, and which might 
have been produced in almost any large town by in¬ 
toxication and bribery, would have been extended into a, 
national rebellion. 


4 


SECTION. 


107 






SECTION V. 

k \ 

Objections —Character of the Roman Catholic 
Religion , and Conduct of the Clergy in the recent 
Troubles of Ireland , 


Jl\eturning to the matter of my original propo¬ 
sition, I shall finally survey the good that is to be 
achieved^ the means that are to be exerted, and the 
prominent objections to my project ; the latter are, 
the supposed repugnance of the Roman Catholic sys. 
tern to our state, in fact an allegation that it is utterly 
jrreconcileable with a Protestant government; and a 
very puerile apprehension lest the Romish clergy might 
in some instances be better provided than certain of 
the establishment; as these profess the same religion, 
they are represented to have claims of closer kindness 
on the dispensers of the public revenue. Such matters 
might be fairly and reasonably urged, if a mere act 
of generosity were proposed, and that an option lay 
among subjects, from whom no return was required, or 
who were otherwise in point of usefulness indifferent. 
No person can object, that gentlemen should be grateful 
for the consolations of religion, and bountiful, to the* 
utmost extent, to the clergymen by whom these are ad¬ 
ministered. To compare either the duties of different 
orders, or their respective emoluments, is an invidious 
t ask : Those who think the funds of the establishment in¬ 
sufficient may enlarge them with their proper bounty; 

p 2 they 

w 


I 



208 


they may edify mankind ; they may reward and embellish 
great deserts and great capability. These considerations 
do not interfere with the provision for another class of 
men, who have other duties to perform, whose necessi¬ 
ties are admitted, and whose functions (I regard the mat¬ 
ter totally under a political aspect) seem to be indispen¬ 
sable. The parliamentary allowance to a curate of the 
established church in Ireland is, I believe, seventy-five 
pounds per annum, and he has frequently to provide for 
a family-—true; but in the first place, the number of cu¬ 
rates is small, and the necessity for them not common ; in 
the next, the instances are very rare in Ireland of a cler- 
gymanof .the established church being continued long 
upon a curate’s stipend ; in general his sole duty is to read 
prayers on Sunday ; whereas the Catholic priest is obliged 
to a constant and laborious attendance on the poor and 
sick. A Protestant curacy is, moreover, the first step of 
a young man who just passes from college ; but in (he 
other case, the appointment is a promotion upon which 
the possessor is to rest for a length of time, and which he 
cannot hope to improve very rapidly, or very materially". 
As the establishment in Ireland is constituted, no man 
ever took Orders on the prqspeet of remaining for life ori 
a curacy ; those, who do so remain, are men who have 
failed in their expectations: There surely is no reason in 
setting up as a measure for the utmost promotion of one 
description of men, that which is the lowest emolument 
of the neglected and disappointed in another order. The 
assistant priests, of whom I have spoken, correspond with 
the curates of the establishment. If the inferior deno¬ 
mination of the Protestant clergy is provided for to the 
same extent, as the well-beneficed of the Catholic; and 
:?f those in the latter church, who correspond with this 
lowest denomination of the former, perform their duty 

for 


i 


109 

for a mere maintenance, there is certainly no room to 
suppose, that the preference to the establishment does 
not still remain in full vigour. 

Now, in estimating our means of correcting evil dis¬ 
positions and promoting good ones, what must be the 
advantage, if, on every extent of five or six miles, a 
well-educated person and of cool judgment can be placed, 
to serve as a link or point of contact between, what are 
as yet immeasurably separated, the upper and lower or¬ 
ders ; bis situation ensuring him familiar access to the 
poor, his conduct, and a sense of his value entitling him 
to the notice and protection of the affluent ? Such will he 
the popular pastor, when he shall be enabled to give a 
liberal scope to his understanding, and when opulent so¬ 
ciety shall cease to refuse him admittance, or disclaim 
him ; he will thus connect the two great divisions of man- 
kind, in a manner certainly beneficial to both, hut which 
applies most immediately to those urgent necessities of 
the superior one, its repose and its security. I do not 
know whether the clergyman is more likely to sink by the 
low estimation in which his people are held, or these to 
be degraded and debased by the contumelious treat¬ 
ment of their pastors ; certainly, he who is intent on res¬ 
cuing mankind from a mean and abject condition, should 
apply himself in the first instance to expand the views and 
cultivate the minds of the ecclesiastics, who instruct and 
guide and are attended to by the objects to be corrected 
—he should next endeavour to employ this body in acting 
upon their followers, and communicating to them the im¬ 
pulse and improvement he designed to accomplish. Sure¬ 
ly polished life cannot hesitate for an instant to adopt, at 
least in a certain degree, our popular clergy, and by so 
doing, to elevate their feelings, and to diffuse amongst 
thejn the impressions of a liberal and ingenuous mind. So 

intimate 


' 130 

intimate is the relation of this body with the general pG* 
pulation, so strongly is the influence felt of its conversa¬ 
tion and example, that a corresponding effect may with 
confidence, he expected to take place through the entire 
range of society. Amply, indeed, will the favour of the 
wealthy be repaid, if the objects of it be able to concili¬ 
ate to them the kindness, and to soften, in regard to them 
and to the state, the feelings and sentiments of the multi¬ 
tude. 

Anti-social tenets have at times been broached by 
Roman Catholic divines, and I believe by divines of ever}-' 
other religious communion; the simple credulity of man¬ 
kind has at times been "gratified and tampered with by 
foolish conceits, by pretended sanctities, by the illusions 
of superstition and extravagancies of fanaticism. There 
must indeed be not a little of spiritual and sectarian 
pride, and no small ignorance of human nature and his- 
, tory in those, who limit such weaknesses to an}^ particu¬ 
lar society. Without adverting, or caring whether the 
admission be critically correct, I will suppose the greater 
lnnhber to he ascribabie to countries and ages, in which 
the Roman Catholic religion^was prevalent—it may be so. 
This religion has lived longer with mankind, has mixed 
with a greater variety of nations, ages* and characters; 
to vindicate the church of England or that of Scotland 
from such infirmity is merely to assert the fact of Britain, 
in the most luminous period of her history ; to claim an 
exemption for the Lutheran church is in like manner the 
purgation of certain restricted territories, in, and adja¬ 
cent to, Germany; so of all the rest; it is easy to be vain, 
if you are to oppose the wisdom of a spot, and the most 
select examples, against the foibles of the universe. The 
history of the vulgar in Roman Catholic countries, 
perhaps most of all in our own, has been more copiously 
* descanted 


V 


r 


III* 

t / 

descanted upon than the like classes of the reformed ; it 
was subjected to the vigilant and scrutinizing inquisition 
of Deism in other countries, of party spirit with us. I 
have no doubt that deviations from rational religion and 
enlightened piety are equally to be found among all 
nations, varying not with tenets, which the people do 
not and cannot understand, but with the care and atten¬ 
tion that is bestowed on matters familiar and intelligible 
to them. The mind of an Englishman is certainlv not 
more alert in other respects ; he is probably in this 
matter not farther removed from simplicity. The states¬ 
man would have before him indeed a long and dreary 
prospect, if he decline to settle the mind of his country, 
until he shall succeed in banishing the popular appre¬ 
hension of hobgoblins. 

I very probably proceed beyond my means, and am 
likely to acquit myself with even more than my accus¬ 
tomed feebleness, when I approach the confines of 
theology ; it is matter with which I am far from 
conversant ; but plain reason may guide a man who 
pretends to no more, as to what we actually meet in 
the world, and the consequences, of it upon human 
feelings. I endeavour, perhaps weakly and circuitously, 
to attain this point, that if any of the Christian systems, 
especially the Roman Catholic, with which I am best 
acquainted, seemed to have been betrayed into tenden¬ 
cies unfavourable to our civil institutions, the fact 
(even should it be admitted), implies no more than a 
neglect of means, an injudicious choice of instruments, 
and an over-sight of character. You may chuse, sup¬ 
pose in the church of England, between bishop War- 
burton and an itinerant field-preacher ; in the church 
of Rome, between the superior intelligence of Bossu'et, 
Fenelcn, and Pascal^ and a wandering monk in the 


inoiin- 


1V2 

mountains of Abyssinia ; there are gradations and shades 
of distinction, of which these are the extremes. ' WiH 
any man suppose that the Doctors of Sorbonne taught all 
the idle legends, and the confidences in this or that garb, 
or such matters as have at times been offered for adop¬ 
tion, when men were found so weak or ignorant as to 
receive them ? I need not observe, that practices and 
observances connected with religion, will vary essentially, 
when sensible and intelligent men lead the way, from 
what branches out of the same stock, under the ma¬ 
nagement of the ignorant and sordid ; you cannot con¬ 
vert into a Bossuet or an enlightened Sorbohist, every 
man whose province it is to teach religion; but surely 
you may present these approved models for imitation— 
you may direct men to draw their knowledge from the 
same fountains, to form their minds upon the same 
system ; j'ou will obtain something very excellent, when 
you fall short of perfect resemblance. Now mark 
exactly the conduct you pursued :—you talked your¬ 
selves into' a fever about popish bigotry—by way of 
preventing it, you would not allow ecclesiastics to be 
instituted near home, so you calmly drove the people 
to seek their pastors where ignorance and bigotry are 
confessedly at the highest. In the excess of apprehen¬ 
sion relative to the Pope’s supremacy, you gave him 
* not, as in other countries, the titular recognition, but the 
actual nomination of an entire hierarchy ; this was 
not enough, the principal members of it, until his re¬ 
venues failed, were rendered pensioners on his bounty. 
These were the provisions ot Protestant ascendancy— 
this the precaution it chose for its security. 

Those who are only intent on turning every thing 
to crimination will, I suppose, here fasten on a sentence 
of a pastoral letter, which they have already twisted 

and 


I 


I 


113 

and hammered out into a thousand different conse¬ 
quences : that “ the Roman Catholic religion is every 
where the same.” So it is, but this designation applies 
to matters of doctrine, which have no effect on civil or 
social life, and I at present consider religion as it apper¬ 
tains to these relations. No man was ever better or worse, 
as a husband, a father, a citizen, or a subject, whether 
he reject or believe the real presence in the eucharist ; 
but he will probably be more correct, according to the 
quarter from which proceed the impulse his mind re¬ 
ceives, and the precepts that direct his conduct. What¬ 
ever the church had decided and ascertained as tenets 
of religion, were taught in France before the revolu¬ 
tion, and inviolably adhered to ; but as firmly did the 
Callican church reject many opinions that had been 
broached by particular divines, and favourably received 
in other parts of the continent. Of these were the supe¬ 
riority of the ecclesiastical over the civil authority, the 
high independence of the former, and the long train of 
exemptions which were claimed for spiritual persons. 
No man in France thought of these things, not the most 
zealous or the most orthodox. No man thought of a 
thousand frivolous superstitions, which are practised 
even in the dominions of Spain and Portugal. Now as 
you cannot refuse to have the Catholic religion in Ireland, 
why should you not endeavour to fashion it according 
to this approved model of the Gallican church, the most 
enlightened and liberal without any question that ever 
existed, which on all hands has been admitted to have 
been orthodox and pure, and which proved itself per¬ 
fectly stedfast ? 

Upon no subject, as it appears to me, are there mis¬ 
conceptions more gross and dangerous, than on this of 

a the 


1 14 


the genius of the Roman Catholic religion. Led by its 
prejudices to imagine an incompatibility that did not 
exist, and to magnify faults that might have been re¬ 
medied, the country abandoned, as an hopeless pursuit, 
the direction of this system, and then fell precisely into 
the predicament which it shunned, and produced the ills 
it seemed to deprecate. You were so dainty and abhor¬ 
rent of popery that you would not touch or approach 
isbut it was the natural growth of the land, and shot 
up wild on every side ; you descanted on its fancied 
defects, until you filled up a catalogue of real ones 
infinitely more formidable. How many persons do we 
every day meet, genuine lovers of their country, mean¬ 
ing only what is honorable and correct, the very men 
who constitute a great portion of that active, deliberating, 
and intelligent class, in whom the public mind may be 
said to reside, v r ho are ready, even at this hour, to pro¬ 
ceed upon the same false lights and narrow conceptions ? 
Popery with them is somewhat, which where it is pas¬ 
sive, degrades the character of man ; where it is active, 
or energetic, renders him virulent and ferocious. The 
first error is to institute a standard of comparison utterly 
inapt and incompetent; you bring into parallel the middle 
and superior ranks of one description, who have all the 
advantages and lights of cultivation, with the most ab¬ 
ject and ignorant of the other. Spiritual pride or party- 
spirit can only find the difference of religion, where 
common sense, if it took time to reflect, would discern 
in an instant the difference of place and education. As. 
the laws and prejudices of England did not protect the 
church of Rome, the Deists of our nation commenced 
their attacks on Christianity, by assailing this defence¬ 
less quarter ; here were directed the sneers and cavils of 
some of our eminent and popular waters. Those works, 

in 


115 


in the hands of every one, and received without reflection 
by men who were easily induced to exchange the abhor¬ 
rence of the nursery for the obloquy and derision of the 
instructor, lay the foundation of a theory ; obsolete, ex¬ 
ploded, and rejected notions, the refuse of the darkest 
ages ; what some men uttered in their imbecility, and 
others endeavoured to uphold in their ambition, supply 
further materials ; and the entire is completed by prac¬ 
tical examples, from what is observed amongst the 
most untutored of all mankind, the depressed and brow¬ 
beaten peasants of this island ; all this is a very promis¬ 
ing superstructure for unkind prepossessions, but cer¬ 
tainly does not afford premises, from which any man 
should venture to draw a general conclusion, and yet 
upon these, judgment is every day pronounced against 
the universe. 

I must still press, that I decline to entangle myself in 
controversy, and I may be permitted to pursue this track, 
and to assert this exemption, whilst I impugn no tenet, 
impeach no S 3 *stem, reproach no discipline, and pretend 
to no learned disquisition. I view and observe on things 
as they lie near me upon the surface of society. I think it 
must tend to convince my protestant countrymen, that 
false notions have arisen amongst them of the effects 
and tendency of the Roman Catholic religion, if they will 
but advert to very familiar and very cogent evidence. 
You have men before j'our eyes, who having been edu¬ 
cated in this church adhere to it inviolably ; men of as 
strong and cultivated understandings, as any you can 
boast; as eager to promote the public good, as ready 
to tender ail the benignant offices of private intercourse. 
A man of liberal condition in Ireland has no object to 
attain by persisting in the religion of our ancestors, but 
exposes himself to much spleen, and forfeits many 

• Q. 2* valuable 


116 


/ 


valuable gratifications. Would he make this sacrifice, 
if he found that he only thereby entangled himself in a 
scheme of folly and fraud, and became party to an 
unprofitable combination, adverse to public and private 
relations ? Is the man I describe less qualified than his 
neighbour to judge of honour and honesty ? Is he so 
abject as to be the slave of priestcraft, or so absurd, as 
not to rescue himself from that very foolish thraldom ? 
Really it is going far to arrogate for Protestantism 
a monopoly of sound understanding. Suppose (for I 
will meet every presumption) that a man of this des¬ 
cription happens to be indifferent, but yet refuses to 
revolt from the communion in which he was instituted, 
why this man is at once a more dispassionate judge, and 
a more convincive witness—perfectly instructed in the 
religion in all its directions and relations, and in all the 
feelings that it sets in motion, he sees nothing, which 
solemnly and in the face of Heaven he ought to repro¬ 
bate. The firm believer finds every thing deserving 
to be retained ; the latitudinarian has met with nought 
to provoke his censure. There is one test more in which 
all these descriptions concur, a display of sincerity in 
which scarcely any man can be supposed to trifle ; he 
might be indolent as to himself, but would he confirm 
and commit his children to this discipline without a 
distinct conviction that it affords an excellent guide for 
life, and kind hopes and benignant consolation for that 
awful trial, when the curtain drops on the visions of mor¬ 
tality ? Now these are testimonies beyond all reproof, 
they are exhibited by men, frequently as well qualified 
to judge, and far more competent from their knowledge 
of the subject to determine. I am ashamed of the ne¬ 
cessity that requires me to point round to Europe, and 
to enquire of my countrymen, in what part of mary* 

ners. 


117 


ncrs, science, or civility, they excel these nations, 
■which have been reared in the bosom and under the 
influence oi the Roman Catholic religion ? Let them 
compare themselves with that body of gentry, whom 
the miseries of the French revolution have afforded a 
near opportunity to appreciate ; I do not insinuate that 
they are surpassed, but undoubtedly they are fully 
equalled. Now, if what is termed the Romish super¬ 
stition has acted in one country to the injury of the 
human character, the effect of it, in every other must 
be similar. What occurs at Dublin must take place 
under the same circumstances in Paris and Vienna. I 
take the fact to stand thus : If Roman Catholics were 
to be met in Ireland, inferior to their fellow-religionists 
of other countries, the cause is to be sought, not in the 
discipline and creed, which are common to them with 
so great a portion of mankind ; but in the agency of 
civil institutions, which are peculiar to their own island. 
Not they, but their accusers, deserve that reprehension 
which is profusely and familiarly dealt out by a very 
idle and misjudging vanity. 

Consigning still theological matters to those who 
are adepts in that learning, I cannot refuse to observe 
upon two tenets, by which, or by the effects of them, 
social life is supposed to be affected. The supremacy of 
the Pope, and the imputed doctrine of exclusive salva¬ 
tion. If I were to select that matter, which beyond any 
thing else illustrates my argument, and enforces my 
counsel, I should recur to both or either of these points, 
as conspicuous instances of the pernicious conse¬ 
quence of neglect and irritation. It is apprehended that 
opinions relative to a future state extinguish the charities 
of life; certainly the fact is not so, for there is not the least 
doubt that persons live every day on very affectionate and 
endearing terms, of whom some must apprehend that 

others 


/ 


118 

thers pursue what revelation reprobates and destines to 
divine vengeance. Can any man be a Christian and not 
believe, that certain offences are marked for punishment 
hereafter, and can any man go through the world without 
contracting relations with those who fall into such 
frailties^ But few I believe, very few there are, who, 
amidst the active concerns of life, turn aside to speculate 
on the eternity of another. Grant the suspicion to be well 
founded, and that the difference of religion does tend to 
the unkind sentiment that is apprehended, what course do 
you pursue ? The offices of good neighbourhood, the in¬ 
termixture of duties and relations, of services aud ex¬ 
pectations, are calculated to counteract this inclination. 
They are not permitted to do so—you begin to avenge in 
this life the quarrels of futurity; you draw aline of sepa¬ 
ration, assigning distinct interests, views, and motives of 
action ; if two classes of men were perfectly disposed to 
pass in amity through this life and to expect the like reci¬ 
procity in another, he, who malignantly wished to blast 
that harmony, should divide the parties into factions, and 
endeavour to place them on the respective footing of the 
Protestants and Catholics of Ireland. Whatever may be 
on this head the sentiment of the Catholics, those have lit¬ 
tle reason to complain, who insist upon anticipating the 
affront by a good round system of earthly exclusions; they 
conjecture that we are intent on the reserve of access to 
Heaven, and adhering to the old adage, that “ the bird 
is better in the hand than in the bush,” they secure the 
possession of the goods of this world to themselves, and 
leave to us the flattering expectancy of hereafter; now, 
for one, I do not hesitate in the face of my country to 
aver, that I have no sympathy with this tenet, as des¬ 
cribed and imputed, still less with the supposed effects of 
it; yet I am not the less a disfranchised subject of Ireland, 

and 


\ 


119 

and if I had either ambition, or was endowed with quali¬ 
fications to aspire to a situation more elevated than has be¬ 
fallen me, in that disfranchisement and in all the spleen 
and passions that arise out of it, I am indisputabh r certain 
that I should encounter an insurmountable barrier.* 

In truth, the regular doctrines of the church of Rome 
upon this subject are the most lenient and forbearing of 
any religious association whatsoever. The several re- 
tormed churches were not out of their cradle, when they 
began to lisp, that to dissent from them was damnable. 
I believe there is a clause of this import in every creed 
that has been formed since, and exclusive of, that of the 
Apostles. The church of Rome classes among crimes, 
not mere error, but contumacy and obstinacy; and ex¬ 
plains itself favourably with respect to those, whose igno¬ 
rance is the effect of situation, or invincibly impressed by 
honest, though mistaken conviction. In this form I re- 
ceived the doctrine from venerable and learned divines, to 
whom my early years owed a considerable part of the debt 
of education. Similar is the language of Ur. Milner, a 
Roman Catholic clergyman, who has recently expounded 
the doctrines ofhis church, and not only is the reputation 
of that gentleman high, as it deserves to be, among the 
Roman Catholics of this empire, but he of late lias been 
honoured, by the special appointment of the Roman 
court, with the episcopal character; no person can ques¬ 
tion the correctness of orthodoxy, which has received this 
testimony of approbation. 

Yet, without any question, there have been eccle¬ 
siastical persons, ready and earnest to stretch to a very 

extravagant 

* The asylum for female penitents, founded in Dublin, could only per¬ 
mit those, who were willing to profess the established religion; this occasion¬ 
ed an observation, that, at least from one lucrative department, there was 
no wish, to exclude Romanists. 


120 


extravagant length their pretension to the divine favour. 
Every religious communion affoitis these instances, but at 
present it only concerns me to treat of the Roman Catho¬ 
lic. Now what results in point of proof from this contra¬ 
riety of expositions? simply that there is a difference be¬ 
tween the several teachers extremely well entitled to at¬ 
tention, and that you may, by adverting to the selection 
and to the education of clergymen, altogether correct 
the evil of uncharitable doctrines, and remove the ten¬ 
dency to foment unkindness. 

But indeed you must do more, you must calm the 
animosities of the people; nothing is more natural than, 
that, when men have grounds for civil or political dislike 
they should extend their hatred to the utmost limits of 
conjecture. If it be rendered penal and inconvenient to 
profess a particular faith, the zealous favourers of that 
religion will necessarily shew their adherents, that they 
have some contingent advantage to atone for present suf¬ 
fering ; the charities of life and the kindnesses of inter¬ 
course are not disturbed by notions relating to a future 
state ; but men deal out damnation to each other, because 
these kindnesses and charities have been previously poi¬ 
soned and perverted. It is curious to trace the variations 
of opinion on this very subject in the country we inhabit. 
As men mixed together in society, and interchanged acts 
of beneficence, you might observe them declining from 
the severity of the ancient maxims, qualifying their own 
dissent, and searchingymt apologies for that of the oppo¬ 
site party. Probably when the sword was sheathed at 
Limerick, there was scarcely a Roman Catholic in Ire¬ 
land, who on the mixed ground of Invader, Williamite, 
and Protestant, did not consign his enemy to perdition; 
the sentiment continued, 1 believe, pretty much in vi¬ 
gour, until between forty and fifty years ago ; I learn that 

clergymen; 


121 


clergymen* devoting other religious bodies to divine 
wrath, from about that period, were few, were listened 
to rather with astonishment than approbation; from 
twenty to fifteen years since, I am perfectly convinced, 
that no mail broaching such notions would have been heard 
av itli patience. I have never kno\yn> in the course of 
my experience, of any instruction or discourse, in which 
it was touched on. I am inclined to admit that a 
greater degree of rancour, and generally more unkind 
feelings exist at this day, than during the years prece¬ 
ding 1790; the distance is short, and yet the variation 
is considerable ; but to what will any man of common 
reflection ascribe the change ? To the religion, or to 
the asperities of faction ? To the writings of Dr. 
Duigenan, or the mass-book ? What ! a few short 
years sufficient to alter the character of a people, and 
the tendency of a religion : Not a single generation has 
passed away; and this accumulation of bigotry is supposed 
to have taken place amidst advances to refinement and 
opulence ; in the face of an age, whose movements are 
any thing but retrograde. No credulity can acquiesce in 
such assertions; the thing is utterly impossible. Rather 
seek the explanation where it is to be found, and where 
evidence supports it. The Roman Catholics of Ireland 
increased in w r ealth under the original relaxat’on; they 
became familiarized to tl^eir country, and to its institu¬ 
tions; at the maturity of these feelings, they required to 
participate in the privileges which their fellow-citi¬ 
zens enjoyed, and of which these highly extolled the 
value and importance. The proposal was repelled fas¬ 
tidiously,—the influence of the crown and the consider- 

t 

ation due to such a portion of the people prevailed to 
a certain extent over pride and petty interests; but in. 
the course of a long and angry discussion, passion took 

place 


R 


122 


place of reason; reciprocal exasperations and resent¬ 
ments occurred ; parties were formed, political in fact 
and motive, although under an ecclesiastical pretext and 
designation *. It was not religion which communicated 
to these parties their complexion and character, but the 
spirit and contention of politics perverted, depraved 
and diffused a venom over religion. I know it is not 
unusual to assert, that the indisposition ol parties is to 
be referred to the blind attachments and antipathies of 
the Roman Catholics ; but the tact is, that this character 
is very nearly, if not altogether, fictitious. I he Roman 
Catholics do not, that 1 know of, cherish writers who tra¬ 
duce and inveigh against their fellow-citizens ; they have 
no exasperating commemorations. I here are no men of 
a more liberal turn of mind than the Irish C athohes of 
education and property: The peasant and populace are 
not, any more than the like description elsewhere is, a 
class of philosophers. But men, on the other side, who 
ought to be enlightened, entertain illiberal feelings, and 
justify them by a charge that those are not enlightened, 
who might be expected to be vulgar. If corresponding 
ranks be compared, the balance of rash antipathy is infi¬ 
nitely with the Protestants. Try the cessation of con¬ 
flicting interests ; animosity will be subdued ; Christian 
charity will revive ; and religion on every side will pro¬ 
ceed to its ends, as heretofore it \vas wont, and as it does 
in other countries, with blessings and benignity. 

The 

* It is idle to speak of the cause of religion, in the controversies between 
the Catholics and those Protestants who support the coercive system. The 
matter really in dispute is, Whether shall the property, which came into no¬ 
tice since 1778, be admitted to \ parity of influence and distinction with, 
that created during the forty years previous. For this point of precedence, in 
the eye of reason of nearly the same import as the pretension of two ladies in 
a dancing-room, our energies are cramped, and the British empire brought to 
extremities. 


123 


The matter of the Pope’s supremacy has been so 
oiten, so explicitly, arid unequivocally explained, has 
been the subject of so many oaths and avowals, that he 
who continues to misapprehend it, remains liabie to the 
charge of erring by his own election. Every Roman 
Catholic, demanding in this realm the smallest civil 
privilege, must qualify himself by disclaiming upon 
oath any civil or temporal jurisdiction or authority in \ 
the Roman Pontiff. Persons of that communion do 
certainly maintain that, as an institution of an order 
of bishops among the clergy took place at the organi¬ 
zation of the Christian church ; so, at the same time, 
and by the same divine founder, was a Primacy amongst 
the bishops themselves established. I presume there 
are in England a multitude of persons who conscien¬ 
tiously admit the sacred character and functions of epis 
copacy; they will allow that the bishop of London 
exercises in his diocese, and the archbishop of Canter- 
busy in his province, jurisdictions which Christ intended ; 
but do they therefore suppose, that either of these Pre-» 
lates is to command the militia or tire train-bands, or 
to regulate the proceedings of the quarter-sessions r—• 
he may warn his subjects against sin ; he may direct 
and tranquillize conscience ; but I presume no man 
suspects that this prerogative could be strained to a 
right of interfering with civil duties. Thus the supre¬ 
macy cf the see of Rome applies not to the ordinary 
affairs of life, but to the feelings of conscience ; on 
these it acts ; and where jurisdiction arises, it pro¬ 
ceeds by certain fixed'and canonical rules; nothing 
is fluctuating, capricious, or unascertained—all is easy 
to be known and accommodated. You might as well 
conjecture that the parish priest, in either church, was 
likely to claim the right of regulating the tolls and 

r 2 market 


124 


markets. Let the Pope outstep the line of his eccle¬ 
siastical situation, he becomes a temporal prince, and 
like any other temporal prince will be obeyed in pro¬ 
portion to the force he can employ, or to his means, by 
dispensing favour, of procuring attachment. If you 
insist upon imagining extreme cases, there is not, or 
ever was there an institution, which will stand this 
ordeal; let a man proceed forward with theory, and 
not correct or guide himself by probability and practice, 
he may give a plausible form to any, the most mon¬ 
strous proposition ; a speculatist, taking things literally, 
might very speciously represent, that the courts of 
Chancery or King’s Bench were armed with such powers, 
that they must necessarily swallow up every other juris¬ 
diction ; he might fancy that the three estates, which 
compose our parliament, were calculated for eternal 
and irreconcileable discord ; yet we know how decidedly 
the facts run the other way, and we know with the equal 
certainty of experience, that the supremacy of the 
Pope is consistent with every modification of authority, 
and compatible with every possible form of civil go¬ 
vernment. 

But have the pretensions of the Tiara never been 
extravagant ? Have they never tended to embroil man¬ 
kind, and involve the common wealth in turmoils and 
difficulties ? Unquestionably they have ; and are such 
disasters not fit to be cautiously avoided ? I must put 
another question:—Do you pursue this end by the means 
which are the best adapted, the most judicious and ad- 
viseable ? I apprehend you do not; and that whilst you 
inveigh against and thwart the supremacy of the Pope, 
you confer upon that prelate considerably greater influ¬ 
ence, than if you were, so far as the necessity extends, 
tp yield fo the opinion which saltations fiis prerogative, 

and 

» 


and condescend to give it a direction consonant to th$ 
public interest. When we treat of the times in which 
Rome displayed her offensive ambition, we should em¬ 
brace in our consideration all the circumstances accom¬ 
panying the respective transactions. Governments were 
feeble ; the nobility every where was factious—approach¬ 
ing near to the crown in power, and imitating it in 
appearance and authority, they were strongly disposed 
to emulation and envy, and embraced with avidity every 
colourable occasion of resistance. Such movements 
were easy at a time, when arms were the sole concern 
and occupation of at least the acting part of mankind. 
The Papal See in every country disposed of great digni¬ 
ties and affluent benefices; by these means it secured 
adherents; every Monastery was a Citadel holding for 
the Pope. The monks were often aliens, but always de¬ 
tached from the state and its civil interests; their superiors 
were nominated from Rome; the officers of the respective 
orders, with whom they preserved correspondence, were 
Strongly bound to that court, where for the most part they 
resided. Every gratification came from abroad, and every 
hope was directed to the same quarter. Scarcely a pas¬ 
sion or a feeling had access, but those which tended to 
estrange the orders from the civil, and to bind them to 

O 

the head of ecclesiastical, authority; they of course were 
ready to assert and forward all the claims of the latter, 
and they could do so with more effect as they were a nu¬ 
merous and widely extended body, strangers either in 
factor feeling to the.country in which they were acci¬ 
dentally seated. If you can suppose a recurrence of 
these circumstances and of this condition, then will I aU 
low the objectionable parts of ecclesiastical history to be 
proper precedents for our regulation. In all men oppor¬ 
tunity kindles ambition , and I (Jo not claim for the Popes 


126 


an exemption from the foibles, which, when occasion 
calls them forth, have been discovered in other Princes. 

Let us suppose the Pope inclined to make an irregu¬ 
lar and corrupt use of the reverence, which attends his 
sacred character: he must act through the medium of the 
Bishops. I am very far from imputing sordid dispositions 
to that venerable body; I know them sufficiently to pro¬ 
nounce, that the love of money is not an ingredient in the 
composition (even under the least favourable considera¬ 
tion) of their character; but I do not disparage them, 
when I judge of them, as of men, that, if the govern¬ 
ment of the country essentially promotes and provides for 
their accommodation, they will never strain the doctrines 
of their church, or abuse their facilities for influence, in 
order to disturb their own enjoyments. I have not a 
doubt that they are ready to make great sacrifices for the 
real tenets of their religion, but I cannot lightly be in¬ 
duced to believe, that in the teeth of their own quiet and 
their own iuterest they would propound a forced exposi¬ 
tion of these tenets, out of respect to the bad passions, 
the corrupt conceits, and extra-judicial fancies of their 
Primate. Men may safely be permitted to acknowdedge 
any distant superior they think fit, provided he neither sup¬ 
ports, nominates, nor rewards them ; and surely it is fully 
in the competence of our government to provide bj? easy 
precautions, against the possibility of this interference** 

The 

* I would propose that government should take upon itself to maintain 
and conduct whatever intercourse must necessarily subsist between the court 
of Rome and the Roman Catholic Prelacy of Ireland , that a satisfactory tri¬ 
bunal should be instituted for differences arising between the bishops and their 
clergy, and for other matters of diocesan discipline, for which, appeals at 
present lie to Rome. Such appeals are with the Pope’s consent prohibited in 
Prance, and were prohibited by the statute of premunire when the Catholic 
religion was established in these countries, I would recommend to vest in the 
* " crow-- 


/ 


127 


Tne truth is, if you place their infereSts in another scale, 
the Bishops are the very exact counterpoise to any extra¬ 
vagant pretensions, which may be advanced on behalf of 
the Popedom. Grant the Papal supremacy to be a con¬ 
trolling and inspecting jurisdiction—who are the objects 
ot it? the Bishops; who are concerned to keep it within 
bounds, and maintain limitations on it ? Undoubtedly the 
Bishops; and this course they surely will pursue, if they 
are perfectly and altogether independent. Those, upon 
whom any superiority acts, are uniformly the persons to 
preserve it from encroaching ; thus the natural opposition 
to a prince will be found in his great nobility ; to a noble¬ 
man in the surrounding gentry; to the commander of a 
regiment in his staff, and so on in every relation; I will 
venture to assert that if, in modern times since his power 
of nominating has been withdrawn, the Pope hasattempted 
to interfere with the bishops of Catholic countries, more 
instances will be found of vigorous resistance, than there 
existed in the prior state of things, of prompt and easy 
acquiescence. 

When 

/ 

crown the nomination of bishops, bat, (in order to obviate the objections 
arising from more intimate relation^ with another religious communion) sub¬ 
ject to an inviolable convention that the appointment should be exercised con¬ 
formable to the recommendation of such one or more Roman Catholics of 
distinction, as his Majesty should think fit from time to time to nominate 
for the purpose ; this regulation would reciprocally connect the church and 
the laity, and check the disposition to form an ecclesiastical corporation with 
high clerical pretensions, to which, acting and combining together, the heads 
of this church would be otherwise inclined, and which I really think to be the 
weak side in their character. To impeach their loyalty is preposterous inad¬ 
vertence. 

It was my intention to have given a distinct section to the matter of this 
note, but the necessity of other concerns obliges rat: to close this discussion 
without -proceeding to the extent I had designed. J offer this outline as a 
substitute. 


128 


When we see a prospect that the concurring circum¬ 
stances of the middle ages shall overspread society, then 
will I admit it prudent to adopt measures of precaution ; 
when Kings become feeble and Popes grow puissant, we 
may guard the former against the encroachments ol the 
latter. If history instructs us that ecclesiastical ambition 
and intrigues have sometimes tended to convulse the com¬ 
monwealth, it informs us equally that where an efficient 
government has kept in restraint the follies and vices of 
mankind, the clerical character was, as much as any 
other, controlled in its untoward propensities. History 
records the faults of that character, but it infinitely more 
abounds in instances of its virtue. He, who would have 
no Pontiff, because all were not meek, must refuse upon 
the same ground to accept a Pastor, from any Church or 
designation whatsoever ; the annals of all religions re¬ 
cord so many instances of turbulence and ambition, that 
I must protest against limiting the imputation to any one 
in particular; these matters, where they occurred, were 
the faults and foibles of the respective ages, of situation, 
and of circumstance's; but because such occurrences 
took place in rude and ignorant times, are we to appre¬ 
hend a like visitation in the present ? I should as soon 
think it necessary to revive the obsolete statutes against 
wearing Glibs, against ploughing by the horse’s tail, or 
against Coigne and Livery, as disturb my self and vex my 
neighbours about a matter so utterly impracticable, as 
the restoration of the Pope to the dangerous pre-eminence 
he enjoyed in the 13th and 14th centuries. Perhaps it 
will astonish those, wdio have spoken and written so much, 
and so speciously on this subject, to hear, that what they 
have placed under all these aspects of hideous danger, 
what has agitated their feelings, and haunted their ima¬ 
ginations, is little else than a dispute about names and 

terms. 


129 


terms. The king of France, before the revolution, was, 
and the present despot of that country is, effectually and 
reall}', although not nominally, as much head of the 
church, as the king of England. Now, where no pre¬ 
possession existed in favour of the Pope’s supremacy, the 
mere politician would probably not perceive a necessity 
to create it; but, finding such an opinion in force, he as 
probably will not enter into contention with it; especially 
when he can accommodate matters with so much ease, 
and is subject only to the necessity of a light and practi¬ 
cable management. 

If it be true, that the supremacy of the Pope* ren¬ 
ders him master of those who admit the doctrine, what 
becomes of a fact perfectly obvious and familiar ? Never 
did discontent run so high among the Catholics of Ireland, 
as at that moment when the sovereign Pontiff was alto¬ 
gether in the hands of our government, a pensioner of 
our state, and supported by British guards in his capital; 
if the Pope preserved an influence over- the public mind 
of this country, would he not have employed it at that 
moment for his benefactors ? or if our ministers suspected 
the existence of any such influence, would they have he¬ 
sitated to save themselves a vast deal of trouble by resort¬ 
ing to it, as they might have done with certainty and 
ease, and with perfect confidence ? Must we accede to 
the charge, that the Roman Catholic religion will never 
coalesce with a Protestant sovereign, whilst we see that 
in the contentions of America, the Roman Catholics of 
Canada were the onl subjects who preserved fidelity ? 
Nearer to our own times, Malta, Catholic if any place on 
earth be such, anxiously solicited to be preserved in 
the number of British subjects, whilst the Protestants of 
Hanover abandoned without an effort their ancient so¬ 
vereign of their own religion. These reflections, which 

§ surely 


ISO 


surely are sufficiently plain and familiar, appear to me 
totally to repel from the Roman Catholic system, those 
calumnies which rancour has imputed ; of which in this 
island, the theory has been admitted rather greedily, 
and which have been found in no small degree to in¬ 
fluence persons of light reflection in their practice. Folly 
and ignorance have introduced congenial practices and 
notions, among the haunts of illiteracy and weakness, 
among the obscure and uninformed members of every so¬ 
ciety that has existed ; hut I know not of any approved and 
general practice of the Roman Catholic church, which a 
man is not the better for observing*. It is the religion of 
the human heart, which, having grown old with man, is 
admirably adapted to his wants and infirmities; it meets 
human weakness at the greatest number of points, and 
applies the greatest number of consolations and correc¬ 
tives. I may be told, that my education has familiarized 
me with defects, and that my judgment in this respect 
has been swayed by impressions early made, and now be¬ 
come irresistible. Upon a point of doctrine I can com¬ 
prehend, that education will prepare one man to receive, 
what another will be disposed by his original habits to re¬ 
ject with ridicule. But those, of which I have treated, 

are 

* There are objections to the precept, of abstaining on certain clays 
from particular kinds of food, which would be obviated, if the rigid rule 
were changed to a recommendation. Self-denial and docility would in this 
instance be equally evinced, and equally conspicuous, and by not placing 
the observance on a footing with the high moral obligations, the danger is 
avoided of familiarizing men with the breach of what they had been led by 
early impressions to reverence. It is vain to expect that in this age, the in¬ 
junction of fasts, which so frequently recur, will be observed with any thing 
like general attention.. 

This, however. Is matter of great delicacy; it would perhaps be produc¬ 
tive of greater inconvenience to vary the land-miarks of ancient practice. 


131 


arc matters of fact and practice; there can here be ncr 
such latitude or diversity. A man must be an egregious 
simpleton to deem that to be salutary or innocent which 
tends to evil; it is a plain alternative ; and we may be 
permitted to pronounce with some confidence, upon that 
which has been long observed, which has been viewed in 
every shape, and with means of more intimate acquaint¬ 
ance than those who speak upon theory and hearsay. My 
testimony cannot be accused of improper bias ; there is 
no inducement of interest or ambition ; I am not in the 
way to receive favour from any part of the Catholic body ; 
neither is the course I pursue, calculated to gain upon the 
kindness of the strenuous and active partisans, who might 
be able to decide a popular inclination. 

• If it should be the fortune of this essay to be at any 
time considered out of Ireland, it will appear, indeed, 
superfluous to have undertaken this vindication; yet I am 
much mistaken, if the matter of it does not involve some of 
our most urgent necessities. There are persons in Ireland, 
by no means to be heedlessly passed over either on the 
score of cultivation of mind or of situation, who, having 
fancied to themselves a popery, dwell upon the creature 
of their imagination, and believe it to be something too 
mean, too much below contempt, to deserve the pains 
rtf any sort of management; who think that a great deal 
is done, and that all should be perfect and complete, 
under the condescension of a contumelious smleiancc; 
but can you affix these marks ot supeicihousncss, when 
men, as wise and as honourable as yourselves, and in 
this respect better informed, see, in the system you re¬ 
probate, a guide for their own steps through life, and an 
asylum to which the faithful parent does not hesitate to 
Consign his progeny > The process of reasoning pro¬ 
ducing this impression upon Ins mind, may hav< oeen in- 

s 2 operative 


132 


operative upon yours, as he in like manner does not yield 
to your conviction. These things happen every day; you 
may disbelieve the expositions of doctrines which this 
religion presents, but it is impossible to despise it. Who 
will venture to treat that as an object of contempt, which 
some of the first in talent and intelligence have followed 
with reverence and admitted on conviction; which na¬ 
tions, as polished as any upon earth, have anxiously and 
respectfully preserved; which has been considered by 
them to be a precious and valuable deposit, the safeguard 
of morals and cement of society ? 

What will here be observed frequently occurs in 
conversation, and may therefore be anticipated, “ the 
religion of the enlightened Roman Catholics is liberal and 
clear of superstition ; but there is another class, whom 
we denominate papists; these are bigots, and of a com¬ 
plexion widely different.” This distinction has been so 
totally confined to this country, that some, perhaps, will 
not hesitate to call it altogether Hibernian. Translated 
into plain language, it amounts to this : Education makes 
& difference in man ; and as, when the inclination leads 
to good, the difference, upon your shewing is consider¬ 
able, is very much to be desired, and very decisive ; 
then it would appear to me a process of little ingenuity to 
deduce this consequence and this alone : that you ought 
io advert to, and multiply , the means , by which thefavoid¬ 
able alteration is produced ; means which have proved so 
salutary in correcting what you suppose to be the tendency 
of that religion . You should provide education for the 
people and afford them the opportunity of that improve¬ 
ment, of which you admit, and are convinced by evidence 
clearly in point, that their religion is susceptible. 

I go on with this fancy of two sects, although it must 
be pretty plain that it is a pure chimera, and, in truth. 


means 


means only the ordinary division of mankind, into the 
vulgar of light and credulous mind and heated imagina¬ 
tion ; and into those, who having been improved by habits 
of reflection and a sense of character and interest, have 
attained a more safe, discreet, and collected turn of 
thought, a deliberate understanding of duties, and a 
judgment which refuses to be imposed on. In the fun¬ 
damentals of religion, which are not easy to he shaken,, 
both these descriptions inviolably concur ; then, the mis¬ 
chief is not produced by the high and immutable points 
of faith ; it is in the accessaries of religion, which vary 
with the difference of situation and national habits ; now, 
so far the prospect is most inviting ; I have endeavoured 
to shew, that, in the present instance, most of these .ac¬ 
cessorial matters are of your own creation, and all of 
them within the reach of regulation and management. 
In the Roman Catholic whom you cannot blame you 
have a model not to be refused ; you have a point whither 
you shall steer your course, and a light to direct you .ii* 
your passage: you have only to require of the bigots 
to approach nearer to the example of men, whose religioa 
is allowed even by them to be without exception ; bur 
would it not be wise to put a little forward and hold forth 
in a favourable point of view, the parties whose habits 
and demeanour are to be imitated ? The example you 
approve will more readily be followed, if you give honour 
and credit to those who afford it. 

Can we venture to submit to this test the policy 
practised in our country ? The law of the land, it is 
true, appoints limits for the pretensions of a Roman 
Catholic ; the justness and aptness of that regulation I 
am no wise disposed to admit; but I shall for the present 
defer to engage in that controversy, and confine myself 
to some, arid these few and cursory, observations on 


134 


the application to the Roman Catholics of Ireland of 
tfie ordinary modes of calling forth exertion, and direct¬ 
ing the public sentiment. ct ’Tis the duty of this di¬ 
vision of the community to obey and to act for the public 
safety and advantage.” Assuredly it is, but the same 
things are the duty of all other subjects ; and yet we 
know that there are certain methods of conciliation, to 
which the science of government resorts, in order to 
render these duties more prompt and palatable. The 
law of Ireland, as it was modified eleven years ago, al¬ 
lows a considerable latitude of employment and pro¬ 
motion in the public service to a Catholic , it might not 
have boen detrimental to the state, so to use this admis¬ 
sion, as to call forth the emulation, engage the mind, 
and fill the ambition of this people ; they might have 
been invited with salutary effect to the career of useful 
activity and honourable occupation under our monarchy m 7 
the display of successful example, taken from their own 
body, might have encouraged the pursuit, and rendered 
the invitation more attractive ; mixing with their fellow- 
subjects in the community of views and passions, this 
corporation, if such it is to be considered, would have 
been dissolved, the corporate spirit removed, and the 
entire mass identified with the general inclination of 
the country. Perhaps, the adoption of Catholics after 
this manner, will be considered as extending to them 
the sphere of condescension ; but it would in fact be to 
convert the concession made in 1793, from a special and 
limited favour, into an engine of public policy ; yet in 
such a space of time ; under so many vicissitudes of ad¬ 
ministration ; some courting, others repelling, populari¬ 
ty ; no person has been found in any profession, in any 
department of business, worthy to attain a situation, to 
which the opinion of the world annexes credit, respect, 

or 


IS 5 


©1 confidence*; no civil, no military distinction or 
advancement of consideration. Does there really exist 
in Ireland, a temper rashly and unwarrantably alienated 
hom oiu established authorities? The assertion is fre¬ 
quently made, and whatever may be my own opinion, 
I shall pioceed as admitting 1 the charge in all its extent 
and consequences. Does this temper meet with some¬ 
thing congenial and encouraging (I will still suppose a 
fact) among the Catholics ? It would be desirable to 
withdraw those who have been misled, and to check the 
further progress of the mischievous delusion ; in this 
point of view, I should think it not time misapplied, to 
examine the propriety of this vast and dreary exclusionf. 
A more effectual corrective could not be devised for the 
errors to which our population are liable, than to present 
to them men, who, entertaining various common feel¬ 
ing with themselves, might be supposed most near to 
co-operation ; out who adopt a conduct directly the re¬ 
verse ; 

* Lord Camden proceeded farther than any other viceroy, of the interval 
in question, in conferring personal favours, especially of a description to 
enhance the weight and credit of the receiver. Under his administration, 
two peerages were re-established, a third, and two or three baronetages 
created ; one gentleman was placed in a public office of some note. 

Whatever may be the cause of this negative on the adoption of 
Catholics ; the effect is to render the several relaxing laws, rather the re¬ 
verse of what they appear to mean. It is no advantage to induce men to 
prepare themselves for what they are disappointed in attaining. 

I think it net unlikely, that the Roman Catholics of superior condition 
are somewhat backward in familiarizing themselves with our vice-regal 
court. Their habits have not ran that way ; but surely many things suggest 
that a free and extended intercourse ought to subsist between the chiefs of 
the government and this great branch of the community. It is not possible 
to understand Ireland without seeing a eood deal of the Catholics. 

Would it not tend to correct, and draw them offfiom this reserve, if a 
Lord Lieutenant, commencing his government, should place some of the 
Catholic youth among his aids-du-camp, or other officers of his establish¬ 
ment ? 


136 


itfcrse ; who are earnest in supporting the* government, 
anxious to deserve, and proud to obtain the flattering 
distinction of its acknowledgment. There are many 
features in which the rebel and outrageous orange-man 
perfectly resemble ; one is a common wish and belief 
that the Catholic inclines to innovation ; but how do you 
act upon the hopes and conviction of the former, if he 
behold these very Catholics at the head of troops to 
meet him in the field, or engaged in devising measures 
for his discomfiture ? Still more, if he perceive those oi 
that description, who take a decided part against him, 
armed with sufficient influence to decide the less con¬ 
siderate of their communion ? Objects probably have not 
appeared, who deserve this attention ; it may be so ; 
but every other European state has tried this people 
with better effect; deplorable, indeed, would be the 
case, and most poignant the reflection, if we are to sup¬ 
pose that, under an admirable form of government, under 
a reign, which kindness and amelioration eminently 
characterize, our own sovereign encounters a penury of 
qualifications for his service ; whilst France, and Spain, 
and Italy, and Germany have, with the fullest appro¬ 
bation, called individuals of the same stock to elevated 
trust and honorable preferment. I wish to be under¬ 
stood as expressing my mere speculations, such as any 
observer, even the indifferent writer of a tour, mierht 
offer upon the resources of the countiy for regulation 
and settlement. A barren eligibility, whatever may be 
its nominal extent, will never compose, and form to~ 
beneficial purposes, the feelings and passions of this na¬ 
tion. The patronage of the crown ought to be let in, 
and act, upon the Catholics of Ireland, as it does upon all 
other classes of his Majesty’s subjects. This language is 
not claim but reason. 


When 


137 


Wien I treat cf the permanent and perpetually re¬ 
curring management of the Catholic relation, I must 
be supposed to refer to the principle invariably resi¬ 
ding at home, not to fugitive administrations from the 
other side of the channel. It will be curious, if not 
instructive, shortly to trace the variations in this re¬ 
spect, of action and sentiment. I really believe, that 
when the proposal on behalf of the Catholics came 
before the Irish Parliament in 1791, one half the 
members of that Assembly knew * less of their cha¬ 
racter and composition than of any remote people, de¬ 
scribed by gazetteers and geographers. I begin with 
the Catholics, at, and after the Revolution. It it is very 
certain, that if an option between the house of Stuart 
and any other Dynasty had been fairly offered to the 
Irish Catholics, at any time subsequent to the Revolution, 
they would wdthout hesitation have transferred their 
attachment. They recollected with no small degree of 
warmth, how cruelly they had been abandoned by 
Charles II. in the cabinet ; and in the held, after a man¬ 
ner more contumelious and revolting to their feelings, 
by his unfortunate brother. There is not a peasant in 
Ireland, who to the present day will not recal these two 

incidents, and mark them with a vehemence fullv in- 
* %/ 

t dicative 

* One.still meets sensible men, who are so little informed as to. 
imagine, that the priests govern all the public and private affairs of the 
Catholics. Never was an error more totally fundamental. According to 
their several degrees of attachment to religious duties, the Catholics are 
fond to observe and to feel, the spiritual ministry of the clergy ; but they 
are extremely, indeed I think rather excessively, desirous to circumscribe 
them within that circle ; this is particularly the case in large cities. I 
think a priest, who should present himself at an aggregate meeting of all 
religions in Dublin, would be more patiently heard, than if he were to 
offer his advice at a special assembly of Catholics; there he wcu’d very 
probably be considered an intruder. 


33S 


/ » 

dicative of the sting which they impress on his -memory. 
Yet they continued Jacobites until the accession of his 
present Majesty. In this there is no enigma. Ha¬ 
rassed and trodden down by the popery laws, ha¬ 
rassed still more by all the vexatious inquisitions which 
spring from this perverse system, or which grew up 
with it; they looked to a change of government as the 

oulv relief of their necessities —Volvenda dies in attulit 
%/ 

nltro. The present reign commenced an epoch, which, 
whilst honorable feeling forms part of our national 
character, the annals of Ireland must record with affec¬ 
tionate sensibility. The virtues of the house of Bruns*, 
wick, and its marked mildness of administration were 
at length extended to this portion of its subjects. This 
was the dawn of our national prosperity. His Majesty’s 
reign comprises the entire modern history of Ireland, 
and although clouded for some time back, presents by 
far our happiest and most brilliant aera. 

The effect of this salutary alteration became sen¬ 
sible through all the details of our political economy. 
The men who reluctantly acquiesced in this benignant 
course of proceeding, felt their fortunes augment in 
consequence beyond their most sanguine expectation ; 
confidence arose ; capital began to lix, and property to 
diffuse over the country. The facts of a considerable 
accretion of property about this time are obvious; we 
had evidence of it in the vast extension of Dublin and 
other large towns, in the great increase of expensive 
establishments, aud the rising demand for all the arti¬ 
cles or commerce. The property created in Ireland by 
the first relaxation of the Popery laws may be consi¬ 
dered uedcr these heads :—Capitalists who, when they 
l ad a y: red a sufficiency m trade, would have taken 
then eadd . 11 to loieign countries in search of promo¬ 
tion, 


tion, and ultimately fixed there; natives of Ireland, who 
were invited by the more favourable circumstances of 
the times to return with the fortunes they acquired 
abroad, and to lay them out in purchases within the 
country ; but by tar the most signal branch of the public 
prosperity was the incitement to industry, by the facility 
of converting personal into real property, and by the 
inducement to improve upon long terms. The national 
accumulation, under these several items, may certainly 
he rated at several millions. Before the introduction of 
tillage to any momentous extent, land rose by sudden 
jerks from six to twenty-six shillings per acre. Whilst 
all the powers of the country were directed solely against 
Popcr}'-, lands had been much neglected, and cultivation 
so feebly practised, that proprietors, during the first 
thirty years of the late century, were happy to close 
with any person who would take leases for ever, at 
the then current value ; the fortunes, which grew ud 
in Ireland under these circumstances, are beyond con¬ 
ception.* I recal the fact, that the portion of our 
landed interest, who have so eminently profited by the 
mild and judicious policy of these days, may see that 
the advantage is not, as they imagine, solely to the 

t 2 Roma a 

\ 

* The rise of lands is known as a memorable aera to this hour in 
the south of Ireland. The extraordinary encrease of value induced land- 
owners to enclose ground, which had lain heretofore in common, and 
this circumstance, being resented by the common people, occasioned the 
first tumults, called White Boys. In all countries, a certain advance in 
opulence produced an alteration in society ; exasperated at the rise of 
prices and necessity of encreased exertions, and not finding their means 
keep pace with their necessities, the common people have expressed their 
feelings by their turbulence ; but when they find the effort ineffectual, 
they at length submit, and matters accommodate to the new order. 
Thus the Captain Right, and Captain Doe, and Father Murphy of ou{ 
days, are the Wat Tyler, and Jack Straw, and Parsnn Ball of England* 


140 

* • 

✓ ' y , 

Roman Catholics. The effect of all .these circumstan¬ 
ces upon the lower orders has been such, that the 
farmer, who at the commencement of the present 
reign, would have been deemed comfortable with a very 
few head of cattle, possesses at present several hundred 
pounds; and it is as common at this time for a young 
couple to commence, after their marriage, with fifty or 
sixty pounds, as it then was to start with a few utensils 
of not higher value than the same number of shilling^. 
The general condition of the peasants has certainly not 
altogether advanced in exact proportion with the value 
of capital ; but you do not hear at this day of a labouring 
man, who supports his family on potatoes and salt with 
the mere beverage of water ; from thirty to forty years 
back, such things certainly existed. Within that time 
our state of society has assumed altogether a new aspect; 
it was then we began to recover from the effects of 
the contest in which the Regicides were successful, 
when, involving loyalty and faction in one common 
ruin, they made a new partition and settlement of the 
country. This event must be constantly present to the 
mind of a man, who examines the affairs of Ireland ; it 
is in fact the key which explains the state, and object, 
and confirmation of parties, and the point upon 
which turns a great part even of our modern transac¬ 
tions. The Roman Catholics, having been invariably 
treated as public enemies, looked to the hopes of 
better times, under a change of government; they were 
Jacobites *, and it would indeed have been extra¬ 
ordinary 

* I remember to have conversed on this subject with a Catholic gentle- 
Tnan of great respectability and intelligence, and who was in his latter days 
&s firmly devoted as Sir Robert Walpole had been, to the House of Bruns¬ 
wick ; l.e was probably born before the year 1730. “ 1 was a Jacobite,” 

said 


141 


ordinary if they were otherwise. The Protestants at 
the same time recollecting, that king James’s * govern¬ 
ment projected to repeal the act of settlement, by which 
Ciomwell s grants had been confirmed, were outrageous 
m their attachment to the Revolution establishment. 
Under the appearance of zeal for the rival families, we 
vieie rent by our personal feelings and concerns ; the one 
party panting for greater ease to themselves, the other 
dreading that any relaxation of a severe and rigid dis¬ 
cipline might contribute to revive with some degree of 
force, claims on which they looked back with very jea¬ 
lous apprehensions. The entire care of the state, and 
its power from the head to the most minute subdivisions 
of authority, were all employed in a wasteful warfare 
against the obnoxious religionists. From 1746, the 
hopes of the exiled family and of their adherents 
gradually disappeared, and with them the anxious ap¬ 
prehensions of our Irish settlers; the Protestants became 
daily more calm and forbearing ; the Catholics of 
course were insensibly reconciled to their situation, and 

acquired 

said he, “ without reflection ; I took ray opinions from my father with my 
t( inheritance; when I found myself mors gently treated, I came to exa- 
te mine, and saw the weakness of my predilection.” 

* James II. never was personally popular in Ireland ; at the Resto¬ 
ration, he took an enormous grant of lands from the Crowij, whilst the 
officers, who served abroad with his brother, were turned out of their estates, 
and left without redress or reparation. After the death of this prince, either 
in consequence of his own direction, or that of his family, his body was de¬ 
posited in the church of the English Benedictines in Paris, his heart was 
transmitted in an urn to the Scotch, and his bowels offered in another to the 
Irish College. I recollect a tradition preserved in the House, that the 
Principal for the time refused admittance to the urn, and accompanied it's 
rejection with very sarcastic reproaches on this preference to the other 
kingdoms over a people, who had been such victims to his family. 
The urn was transferred to St. Omer, where it remained, I believe, to 
♦lie Revolution. 


142 


acquired settled habits. I think these sentiments and 
feelings had arrived to a sufficient degree of perfection, 
to induce me to fix at about the year 1770 the date ot 
sensible amendment; industry had indeed found an 
earlier introduction into the northern province ; but, in 
the other parts of Ireland, the dawn of prosperity was 
from the time that the vexatious inquisition after Popery 
was given up ; and that opulence, which in our days has 
advanced so considerably, is to be traced to the year 
1778, when the public feeling obtained legal effect and 
sanction by a partial repeal of the laws which prohibited 
the professors of the Romish religion, from acquiring land¬ 
ed property. 

As the Catholics became opulent, it might have been 
presumed that they would have turned their thoughts to 
political privileges; some provision or preparation ought 
to have been made for a contingency of such very pro-, 
bable occurrence. If our former aristocracy had fore¬ 
seen what surely was sufficiently obvious, and had an¬ 
ticipated the desire, they would have held the public 
mind completely in their hands ; or if determined never 
to accommodate, they should have contented them¬ 
selves with a discreet and moderate display of their 
advantages, and have inculcated the same forbear¬ 
ance to the inferior members of their corporation ; 
but they were, the one and the other, as well within 
parliament as without, the most mutinous, the most 
termagant, and vociferous politicians in the universe. 
No people were ever more fond of political privileges 
than the Protestants of Ireland ; they sought every oc¬ 
casion to amplify their franchises, and displayed, what 
it w r as their lot to enjoy, with the fullest ostentation ; 
in the men, who, standing by the side of their fel¬ 
low-citizens, were daily witnesses of their parade of 

pre- 




« 


143 

pre-eminence, a disposition to imitate, and a desire of 
similar advantages, were naturally awakened ; to think 
of preserving what was not to be participated ; to con 
tinue the exercise of all the frequently recurring fran 
chises of electing in the face of an affluent and intelli¬ 
gent people, whose vanity or whose interest was to 
receive no similar indulgence; all this appears to be 
absurdity little short of madness. Accustomed to do¬ 
mineer, our ruling party had grown fond of their 
dominion, and were not aware of a necessity that had 
grown to maturity before their eyes, but most unac* 
countably without their observation ; they did not per¬ 
ceive the actual approximation to equality, of which the 
legal equality was a necessary consequence. It was tiie 
current practice a few years back in Ireland, that every 
man of property should educate one of his children (most 
frequently the eldest) to the profession of a Barrister ; 
the Catholics had no sooner perfected their settlement 
under the act of 1773 , than they turned their ej^es very 
naturally to this common attribute of certain situations. 
Admission to the bar ought, towards the year 1785 , to 
have moved as a concession from the governing powers 
of the country: The matter had been put to them, 
and, whatever might have been the alleged objection, 
the true reason of with-holding this advantage was, that 
the superior profession of the law was supposed to be 
favourable to education and energy, and by receiving 
Catholics in this department, a body of active men 
would be formed to lead forward their brethren. The 
professions of the law were not a matter on which it 
could be of moment to make a stand ; politics and par¬ 
liament were the forbidden ground, which it was de¬ 
signed to fence round and protect ; but the means 
adapted were surely weak and inefficient. Whilst the 

Roman 


> 


' 144 


Roman Catholics continued to acquire property, they 
never could want leaders to stimulate their energies, or 
to point the way to any object of obvious wish or pro¬ 
bable attainment. Bv admitting- to the bur the Roman 

kJ O 

Catholics of education and talents, the chance would be 
father to diminish than encrease their leaders ; for in this 
case talents would be absorbed in forensic cares and the 
diversities of professional employment. There was no 
political regulation to prevent the growth of talents ; 
none to frustrate the effects of a good education; by 
opening the professions, these qualities would have been 
engaged in the service either of the crown or of the pub¬ 
lic ; by closing these paths to occupation and preferment, 
the qualities were not extinguished, but the possessors 
of them were left more at leisure to speculate on the 
grievances and privations to which they were condemned, 
to diffuse discontent, and animate the public to seek 
redress; clearly the professions ought to have followed 
Very quickly after the right to acquire property in 1778 
and 1782; before that right was conceded, the discou¬ 
ragement to found a Catholic family in Ireland was so 
very considerable, that every man, wiio acquired pro¬ 
perty, destined his children for active life in foreign 
countries ; and persons of talents, considering Ireland a 
hopeless, unproductive field, turned their thoughts to 
some pursuit out of it; so soon as the industrious were 
desired to remain, so soon as property was permitted 
to accumulate, the other descriptions would of course 
take up their reskhnee; the question then was not, 
whether the talems and education of the Catholic body 
were like to furnish leaders, but whether these leaders 
were more formidable in a condition of disgust and des¬ 
pair ; or when they were connected with other men of 
like qualifications, employed in active and congenial 

pursuits- 


US 

pursuits arid with reasonable prospects of gratification ; 
but it was hoped that, men of pretensions would be in¬ 
duced to conform, in order to enter these professions ; 
there, again, the calculation was miserably erroneous. 
At the period of life at which young men mark out the 
course they will adopt, they usually are under the in¬ 
fluence ot parents or guardians, and the impressions of 
their education are strong and recent; a youth in these 
circumstances may well be supposed rather to embark 
in a less desirable career than to violate his feedings. 
This is the season of sentiment; towards thirty, ambition 
opens in the riper mind ; the former restraints become 
weaker ; new habits are formed, and less rigid notions 
adopted ; in that state of mind the change of religion 
might not be difficult; then, if it were wished to separate 
the talents from the population of the Catholic body, 
the former should have been invited to engage in the 
professions, reserving the honorable and lucrative dis¬ 
tinctions to conformists. In the year 1786, a limited 
admission to the professions would have been received 
as a boon ; the latent consequences would never have 
been perceived, and the measure would have calmly 
taken the direction I mention. In 1792 it was given, 
but the public mind had already passed to other expec¬ 
tations; it was not considered an act of condescension, 
or kindness on the part of government, and the vehe¬ 
ment contention, which this and other discussions have 
produced, renders men more than ever tenacious of 
their religion. The limitations, which were then made, 
will probably never produce a conformity; so that in this 
instance, the state was ungracious without advantage, 
and indeed after all, how far does it alter the case, 
whether an individual be an avowed lloman Catholic, 
or a reluctant Conformist ? I do not entertain a doubt, 


u 


146 


that the public morals of Ireland would, upon enquiry* 
be found to have sustained the most serious injury, by 
this practice of inviting the violation of early impres¬ 
sions as a sacrifice to interest. The parties seldom seek 
to reconcile themselves bv conviction to the change that 
is put upon them. With us, conformity seems to have 
been the nursery of Deism ; to the frequent recurrence 
of it, whilst the Popery laws were in force, I believe 
we may attribute the fact, that the Protestant gentlemen 
of Ireland have appeared less observant of the forms of 
their church, than those of a corresponding rank in 
England. 

Thus did our acting aristocracy close its eyes to the 
Catholic concern, and proceed with that unwise and 
improvident assumption, that every man in the land was 
a Protestant, and that a matter of this nature might 
be acted upon as a practical truth, because the law 
presumed it ;* at length the impatience of the people 
pressed the question, with solemnity and seriousness, 
upon their notice; still, even in these circumstances, 
opportunities occurred to retain a dominion over the 
popular inclinations. A body of the Catholics, consi¬ 
derable for rank and opulence, probably appalled at the 
aspect of popular exertion, determined to oppose the 
authority of their names f to the growing spirit of their 
brethren;—by a public act they consigned their cause 

to 

* Th e late L °rd Chancellor Bowes, under this pedantic impression, is 
said to have declared in his court, that the law did nor suppose any man 
to be a Catholic, whilst more than every second person he met in the street 
was of tha description. 

t m ust be admitted, that this act was inconsiderate and headstrong 
and taken up with either an utter ignorance, or icpr hensible heedlessness, 
of the disposition of the country. Fhe difference between public papers ill 
and wcii executed, in point t com osition, tended, as much as anything 
else, to decide against the Roman Catholic aristocracy. 


147 


to the government of the country, and implied a recom¬ 
mendation to follow the example. The feelings of the 
nation had by this time passed beyond the professions 
ol the law, and aspired to the magistracy of counties, 
and such little situations of local value. These matters 
ought to have been frankly given up, and the conces¬ 
sion ought to have been made to appear a return for 
the confidence expressed by this part of the Catho¬ 
lics, and a reward of their example ; it would have 
been the establishment of an influence, which in the 
government of Ireland might for ever have been re¬ 
lied on. By capitulating with the persons, who put 
themselves forward on this occasion, their lead and 
influence would have been for ever established in the 
most preponderating degree; the contrary course, 
which was then adopted, gave the Catholic public to 
understand, that possibly they might extort, but cer¬ 
tainly had no hope to negotiate. It was generally un¬ 
derstood, that the Administration of the clay had seen 
the propriety of this capitulation, and determined for a 
time to compliment the seceding Aristocracy, by granting 
at their request, and apparently at their instance, to the 
Catholic bod} r a good proportion of the disputed privileges; 
but the project was beaten down by the interference of the 
leading members of Parliament, who represented to Go- 
- vernment, that the facilities for supporting an interest in 
their several counties would have been impaired, if they 
were compelled to admit a partnership of the Catholics; 
the gentlemen who threw themselves upon the grace and 
justice of the state, having been completely foiled and left 
without support and countenance, sustained a loss of in¬ 
fluence, which never has been retrieved, and which, if 
the party to whom I allude, really desired to guide the 

u 2 country 

«• 


148 


country in the ways of peace and propriety, they must 
have felt as a very serious detriment. Another year and 
an increase of popular effervescence rendered that but a 
short procrastination, which had been purchased by tfiis 
lavish profusion of the resources of order and manage¬ 
ment. 

If the dominant interests in Ireland understood the 
ground on which they stood, they might have perceived, 
that, having petulantly withdrawn from thejurisdiction of 
England, they could not expect to be supported in these 
petty interests and peevish passions, which did not involve 
the general economy of the empire; if they knew the 
country about them, they would have been convinced? 
that no men were more intent on preserving the calm 
course of public tranquillity, than the propertied part of 
the Catholics;—never were any men more sensibly alive 
to the mischiefs of commotion; their wealth, mostly per¬ 
sonal and floating, was distributed in the various depart¬ 
ments of subordinate industry ; they were so much a scat¬ 
tered people, and so diversified in views and passions, that 
the most difficult thing to be conceived is a combination 
amongst them. The proceedings of large towns are ge¬ 
nerally more ardent and energetic than those of the coun¬ 
try ; the inhabitants of the latter would not easily have 
assorted with those of the former; if they atall approached, 
they would have been repelled by the first ebullition of 
intemperance. One circumstance alone could powerfully 
unite, and reduce to something near unanimity, a body 
composed of parts, so heterogeneous, so discordant 
among themselves, and so repellent from each other; 
this was to rouse their pride, to irritate their passions, and 
pronounce every expectation, they could form, inadmis¬ 
sible. This provocation was administered to the fulles t 
extent that can be supposed, and it produced an eftec 

exactly 


149 


exactly suitable*. The fact is, that, some measures 
adopted by the acting Catholics of Dublin, were so far 
discordant from the cool discretion of other parts, that they 
never would have received the decided and unanimous 
approbation, which the administration of 1793 judged 

proper 

* The Catholics of Ireland never were, and never will be, a people of 
combined exertion, except under the influence of irritation ; the interest of 
the several classes and localities are so various, that it is only through the 
medium of their pride that any principle can be established, sufficiently gene¬ 
ral to support a coalition. I believe there is not on earth a people more averse 
from political interference, unless it be forced upon them. 

It would be a curious investigation to look over the several incidents, which 
tended to improve the civil condition of the Catholics, each originating in the 
intemperance of their opponents. The first trace we find of activity or exer¬ 
tion in this people was, towards the year 1770. When the commercial towns, 
in Ireland began to fill, many of the Corporations not satisfied with the other 
advantages they enjoyed, thought proper, under bye-laws, to exact from the 
Catholics, as non-freemen, an annual payment called quarterage. The Ca¬ 
tholics at first submitted, but gradually came to contest the matter in a course 
©f legal proceedings, and the judgment of the courts of law determined against 
the exaction. It was afterwards attempted to procure for this tax the 
sanction of an act of Parliament, and bills for that purpose passed both houses, 
but were suppressed in the privy council, which enjoyed at the time a le- 
gislativejurisdiction. The Catholics, animated by this success, proceeded 
forward, and so far interested government as to procure the act of 177s by 
its influence. 

They were again brought to act about 1790, by the indignation excited 
at a resolution of the magistrates of the county of Armagh, who thought pro¬ 
per, upon occasion of the dissensions between the lower ranks of the Protes¬ 
tants and Catholics of their county, to revive a law for disarming the latter, 
which since the time of the volunteers was supposed to be obsolete. 

Disgust at some proceedings in their own body would again, in Lhe year 
1792, have dissolved their cohesion and dispersed them, if they had not been 
again roused and rallied by the violent denunciations, which I have above re¬ 
ferred to. 

The spirit, which at this day seems to be in progress, refers to the fool- 
rh exclusion of Catholics from many corps of yeomanry, subsequent to Em¬ 
mett’s outrage, and to other matters which certainly were not designed to 
xompliment that tody. 


150 


proper to gratify, had it not been for the very measures 
which were played off, in the confidence that the Catho¬ 
lics would thereby be for ever silenced ; a considerable 
part of the country relished so little the idea of a conven¬ 
tion, that they never would have countenanced that 
which met in December 1792, and never would have de¬ 
puted their delegates to it, if they had not been provoked 
by the eternal and unqualified negative to any relief, and 
by the overbearing and indiscriminate censure, expressed 
in the public acts of the corporation of Dublin, of the 
county meetings and grand-juries. 

H aving thus acted hitherto with such' very slight 
knowledge of their own means and of the objects that 
surrounded them, and having concurred so powerfully 
to overturn what they most designed to cherish, there 
is the more reason to apprehend, that the remnant of 
this party may possibly at the present day not be 
altogether correct in what they pursue or recommend 
for their own or for the public interest. Religion, 
rank, talents, property ; these are the impressive influen¬ 
ces, by which mankind in general is directed ; and 
I do really believe, that the Irish feel more strongly 
than almost any other people the awe and impulse of 
them. We have seen how the greater part of these 
principles have been wielded by the dominant interests 
of Ireland. Instead of endeavouring for the coin- 

O 

mon good to extend the character of correct in po¬ 
litics and enlightened in religion, from the upper to 
the lower Roman Catholics, how much more eagerly 
intent have they appeared to depress the former to the 
level of the latter ; rather to make bigots of the en¬ 
lightened, than to liberalize the bigots? Every oppor¬ 
tunity was used to suppress the examples of the one 
state of mind to blazon forth and circulate the pre 

cedents 


cedents ol the other.' These pastoral letters, which if 
they effected nothing else, shewed at least the dis¬ 
position of the superior, and tended to fix the senti¬ 
ments of the inferior, clergy among the Catholics ; these 
will never more be repeated with the same promptitude 
and facility ; the exhortations of the prelates have been 
sent after the agency of the nobles. Good God ! will 
it be believed by those who are not conversant with 
Ireland, that when called forth by no interest, animated 
by no incentive, the obscure and bumble relacy of the 
Catholics offered, amidst the difficulties of the state, 
their all, their names and their influence; a person was 
found to descend from a situation, which in reverence 
I forbear to name,* not with applauses for the disin¬ 
terested mite, for the poor man’s generous contribution, 
but with coarse sneers and unfavourable expositions, 
with cavils that those who owed nothing had not 
done enough. The Roman Catholic, who endeavours to 
shew himself a friend to our constitution, is received, 
as though to think of approaching the sacred precincts 
of loyalty were an act of presumptuous intrusion ; for 
him there was no hope of that favourable reception, by 
which an ingenuous mind is cheered and delighted ;— 
men embarked in the same cause will not admit him ; 
no applause awaits his labours; and approbation, if 
any, is the very coldest. An inconsiderate word or 
forced construction is set forth with triumph, and re¬ 
corded as full conviction of criminality, perhaps of 
treason. If matter of charge cannot by any means be 
tortured from his casual oversights ; if he has left no 
room to be accused of attempts, by some distant and 
far-fetched malice, to counteract his own exertions ; no 

chance 


* Letters of a Yeoman* 


152 

chance of pickng some little flaw, seeming to imp*/ 
designs without a purpose, and deceptious that can 
have no object; then indeed, he may expect to be dis¬ 
missed into silent and unobserved insignificance. With 
a party I shall never think of reasoning, but the property 
of Ireland may be asked, and find it not unprofitable to 
consider, the propriety of sending every Roman Catholic 
to seek his level among the discontented, when temper 
or other circumstances shall dispose his character to 
ambition or activity. Can it be prudent to set aside the 
benefit of co-operation, service and example, which 
may be offered through all the classes of a vast descrip¬ 
tion ? And this in the very point where such things are 
most requisite to soothe and conciliate an agitated 
people. Now, if in the conduct and views of this body, 
there exist no circumstance to discriminate them from 
other subjects, there can be no motive or justification 
for not affording them an equal degree of latitude and 
encouragements* And if it really be suspected that a 
hostile combination amongst them is on foot, nothing 
can be more palpable, than that it would manifestly tend 
to break and dishearten that combination, and detach 
men from it, if the associates of the project perceived 
an interourse of mutual services and obligation to be 
established between the state and the members of that 
communion. As the Roman Catholics arc habitually 
engaged in pursuits of another nature, their body will 
not offer many candidates for this kind of favour ; but 
the policy, which is put upon our government, repels 
all the aspiring hopes and ambitious views of an entire 
people. 

But the political delinquencies of the Catholics !— 
They have held a convention ; some used intemperate 
language;—there has been a rebellion in which many 

of 


1 


153 


ol them participated. To take up these topics with » 
minuteness, would precisely be to rehearse the crowded 
facts of our history, during a period the most momen¬ 
tous and replete with events. But who are those who 
read the lessons of moderation ? Are they the men, 
who in 1782 cavilled with England about idle rights, and 
proceeded to the very extreme verge of open violence ? 
Are they the men, who, in the pursuit of parliamentary 
reform, sat in rival pomp over against the settled 
authorities of the constitution ? Which, I beg to know, 
is the more criminal act, to be intemperate for some 
thing, or for nothing t The Roman Catholics sought 
what was rational and just, and what was beneficial to 
themselves and to the country ; they held one Conven¬ 
tion in the course of this pursuit; but the circumstances 
of the occasion had compelled them to adopt that mea¬ 
sure ; their fellow-subjects, however, were beforehand 
with them ; not content with a vast latitude of poli¬ 
tical privilege, they would form the constitution on 
a more democratic model ; and whilst they followed 
a fancy calculated to bring ruin upon, themselves and 
upon their country, they celebrated about a dozen of 
those reprehensible assemblies.* Some very weak and 
gome very inflammatory harangues were uttered while 

• x the 

* When I came to make the observations of an adult upon the state 
cf Ireland, (about the beginning of Lord Westmoreland’s administration,) 
the man, who, out of the circle of Parliament, should assert, that a very 
free reform of the House of Commons ought not to take place, or that 
the government of Ireland was conducted with any other design than 
public Injury and private advantage, would have been regarded as a 
sycophant or a madman. The Catholics at this time did not concern 
themselves with politics, but when put to them in private society, they 
acquiesced in vrhat no person contradicted. Is it extraordinary that a 
warmth so very prevalent, should at length have extended; and ought 
those to be strenuous in accusing, who afforded the example ? 


154 - 


the franchises of the Catholics were under consideration $ 
but is this vice or foil}', which ever you please to call 
it, rebuked by the meekness of almost contemporary pro¬ 
ceedings r Have we lost the records of all these famous 
resolves, by which England was menaced during the 
rage for independence ? Are not the declamations on 
reform, during the Rutland administration, still ringing 
in our ears ? , By whom were Mr. Paine’s Rights of 
Man * sent among the peasantry of Ireland ? It is ne¬ 
cessary to recall persons a little to their reason, who so 
far forget themselves as to suppose, that wild conceits 
are innocent, if followed by themselves; whilst other 
men are never to wash out the stain of eagerness, per¬ 
haps at times indiscretion, in a pursuit, which none can 
censure without with-holding their applause from the 
British forms and Constitution. I'must offer this retort 
when I find reproaches made on the head of want of 
moderation. If little, scarcely any thing, has been done, 
to give a lead to moderate men ; if such have been 
sternly repelled, and obliged to fall back into the ranks 
of an opposite description; if no step has been.taken to 
determine that popular feeling, which ever fluctuates 
between right and wrong ; which in concerns of a politic 
cal nature is generally influenced by parties, by leaders, 
and by passions ; if, whilst the alleged friends of order 
acted, as though no such thing existed among the Catho¬ 
lics as a public mind, the enemies of the empire, more 

sagacious, 

* This distribution was made by the care and procurement of a 
society called the Whigs of the Capital, formed out of the corporations 
in Dublin, and pretty much of the same description, who, under different: 
leaders, have since constituted the Orange Clubs of this city. 

I have seen a whimsical note, taken by a gentleman, of the various 
fate of a small political society to which he belonged some years ago* 
when such things were very much the fashion.—The members were 
nearly in equal proportions promoted in the state, ox punished for treason* 


155 


Sagacious, applied themselves to cultivate and cajole it 
If these facts be justly stated, which is the matter of 
surprize, that many of this people were misled, or that 
a gicat and valuable portion should have adhered with 
steady and undeviating zeal to the Crown, the Constitu¬ 
tion, and the Country ? 

The rebellion which broke out in Ireland in 1793, is 
to beascubed to the Roman Catholic Religion, precisely 
in the same manner that the revolt in North America, or 
the conflagration of London in 1780, were Protestant; 
or as the insurrection in Rome against the Pope, or the 
massacre of the Bishops and Priests in the prisons of 
Paris were Roman Catholic; that is, many agents in these 
several acts had received the first mark of Christianity 
under the auspices of either religion. This, I appre¬ 
hend, proves little to the point. Rebellion will, in 
Ireland, be popish, just as will sheep-stealing; the one 
is the vice of the most inflammable, the other of the 
most necessitous part of the community; and whilst these 

x 3 parts 

* I never was of opinion, that eminent talents were displayed by the 
conspirators of 1798 ; they were babbling gownsmen, who amused them¬ 
selves in talking, and in the fancy of their greatness, where others in the 
same predicament "would have acted daringly; but the inferior emissaries 
displayed infinite address, vigilahce, and dexterity; they possessed them¬ 
selves of all the avenues to the feelings and passions of the populace ; in 
their circuits about the country, they were indefatigable—I observed amongst 
many other things, that they gained almost every eommon piper in the 
kingdom, and put seditious words to every favourite air. All this time the 
Gentry of the country were staring about them, wondering at the progress of 
revolt, or favouring it by mismanagement. 

After the discomfiture of the rebellion, a person, who took a very 
active lead in it, was concealed until he escaped from the country. I 
afterwards learned from those, who had seen him, that when the con¬ 
versation turned on the pacificatory measures pursued * der Lord Corn¬ 
wallis, he repeatedly exclaimed—“ P—n his lenity, he Turned us.” 


156 


parts continue to be Catholic, the religion necessarily will 
embrace the incidental defects cf the situation. I might 
admit the religious feelings to be in fault, if any reli* 
gious design or object could be detected ; I believe no 
man will challenge for the Homan Catholic, or any other 
discipline, that it is competent to counteract every moral 
depravity that arises from false policy and maxims; I 
am sure I should not venture upon that assertion, under 
the circumstances I have described in Ireland; but it is 
indeed a curious form of logic, that false policy and 
erroneous maxims are never to be redressed, because 
indeed they, as might well be imagined, produced their 
effect by exciting a promptitude to insurrection. 

In matters so remote as politics, I have no conception 
that a numerous people are any thing but what they 
are formed to by the influences that are placed over 
them ; when, therefore, I admit some faults to have 
occurred among the Roman Catholics, I directly impute 
the blame to the Protestant public, who presented a 
bad example both in their controversies with the crown 
for an extent of powers, and with England for indepen¬ 
dence ; and to the Protestant aristocracy, who subverted 
the sound and salutary influences, and substituted another, 
in the persons of men, some of whom have since dis¬ 
played their ultimate design, and others have at least 
appeared to want discrimination and capacity. The 
Catholics, who Were nearest to the government, were 
those who could he fully relied on ; their habits of asso¬ 
ciation must have given them an identity of views with 
every other aristocracy, or rendered them at least easily 
susceptible of these impressions. I think popular humours 
at one time prevailed among the Catholics, which tvere 
rather to h*; accounted for than justified. I am not about 
to become the apologist of any deviation from the course 

that 


157 


that reason designates; but when we come to treat of 
recent discontents and feelings, we cannot but observe, 
that those have been most severely censured, who can 
allege the most powerful exculpation; with respect to 
this people, the ordinary resources of superior situation 
have been very, very sparingly employed; the ordinary 
springs of human conduct have not by any means been 
set in motion. When has wisdom been conspicuous in 
the collective character of men, if great masses are im¬ 
pelled to act, and left without a guide to direct or con¬ 
solidate their proceedings ? Things with us have run 
very much in the course that might have been expected. 
If I unbar my door to the midnight wanderer, I shall 
be robbed; — I do not extenuate the guilt, or approve 
a laxity of principle, when I say, that I provoked my 
misfortune. Take the controversy with those, who 
proclaim the necessity of universal exclusion, on the 
ground of the very worst apprehension that can be 
thought of. Certain advantages are with-held from 
men of rank and aspiring pretensions, because they are 
disinclined to the ecclesiastical establishment. But 
suppose any man of that description were sufficiently 
profligate and perverse to concert the injury of that 
establishment, would he proceed within the circle of 
his privileges ? If he did so, he probably should stand 
alone; yet more probably he w r ould render himself the 
subject of derision. The means to be employed, by a 
man entertaining these views, would be force and se¬ 
duction ; now as to these means, the system cl inca¬ 
pacities, to which you resort, tends only to whet, pre¬ 
pare the way for, and facilitate the application of them 
A man of high pretensions, in the undisturbed enjoy¬ 
ment of all his legal rights and advantages, would be 
totally severed from sympathy with popular discontent; 

but 


138 


but if he be placed under restrictions, he may excite 
the commiseration of the people, and ingratiate himself, 
by shewing how much he is a loser when he makes 
common cause with them* Then, if the provision mean 
any thing, it looks to security; and where you propose 
to be perfectly and accurately safe, the condition in 
which you place yourselves is that of the most imminent 
and manifest hazard. 1 conceive the case to stand thus: 
Either the Roman Catholics are, or they are not, to be 
preserved in the shape of an interest or corporation 
distinct from their fellow-subjects; if the affirmative be 
adopted, the principles of rank, property, and education, 
should be resorted to and upheld, in order to attract the 
sympathies and habits of the people, and form a basis 
of attachment; if you decide for the negative, the dis¬ 
tinctive laws are the mark and line of separation, and they 
should be abrogated, in order to blend the nations, who 
have hitherto been kept apart, and to identify this with 
the other descriptions of the community. 

The professed and ostensible purport of the relaxing 
statute of 1793 was to impart to the Catholics the 
franchises of the constitution, from the rank of private 
gentlemen downwards. Perhaps circumstances at the 
time afforded a colour of expediency for stopping at that 
point; less would not have satisfied the sober and sound 
desire that prevailed, or laid the foundation for the 
feelings that were expected. The measure would have 
been better received, if the aristocracy of parliament 
bad more accurately studied their ground, and yielded 
to pressing exigencies with better grace and temper ; 
the fruits would have been more abundant, if there had 
been a more judicious application of the merit and 
credit of the concession; the fluctuation of resolves and 
"^sterns had so much impaired the reputation of govern¬ 
ment,' 


159 


nient, that many persons, considering the best security 
for the public weal to consist in the efficiency of the 
supreme authority, and the respect in which it main¬ 
tained itself, were not sorry to observe in the state, 
vigour and power sufficient to assert its dignity, by 
presci'ibing the measure of surrender to popular requisi¬ 
tion ; and they acquiesced on this ground, in a limitation, 
which they could not have approved upon any other 
policy. If motives of collateral convenience rendered 
some reserve expedient, it was more judicious to let 
the burden fall, where it would be most lightly felt, and 
where a more cultivated reflection would convert a tem¬ 
porary privation into patriotic sacrifice ; such, perhaps, 
were the feelings on the subject of the act of 1793. 
We must proceed to the actual application, at the 
present .day, of the rule adopted upon that occasion, 
and its propriety and reasonableness as the founda¬ 
tion of a political system. In the inferior classes of 
society, the Roman Catholics are numerous, and symp¬ 
toms of insubordination have appeared in these quar¬ 
ters ; yet there, every privilege is conceded ; whilst 
penalties are imposed upon persons, who employ the 
Utmost effort of precept and example to support the 
state, and to keep the people steady to their duty. If 
the Roman Catholics were dangerous, you should guard 
against them where they are powerful; and, if exclusion 
from privilege afforded protection, it is here the state 
should curtail its grant of franchises; but on this side 
nothing can be more free ; the Catholics enjoy, as in 
good sense and justice they ought, every latitude of 
privilege ; I do not impeach (God forbid I should !) 
this equitable latitude; but when persons talk of the 
Roman Catholic body as dangerous to the establishment. 

practically assert their principles by removing 

restrictions 


160 


restrictions from the many and imposing them on the 
few ; when they emancipate the multitude, who may, 
perhaps, be deluded, and who are capable of rash pro¬ 
ceedings ; and discharge their whole rigour upon a couple 
of dozen gentlemen, whose fidelity is counter-secured by 
their situation, and whom no man can reasonably suspect 
of differing from their equals ; then, indeed, I am com¬ 
pelled to impeach the abettors of this project, and to 
produce against them this palpable evidence of incon¬ 
sistency. Can any man say, that the collective mass, 
they denominate Popery, is formidable to any branch 
of our constitution, when no fears are entertained from 
that quarter, where its adherents are easy to be influenced 
and numerous; but all the vigilance of coercion is di¬ 
rected against the few, whose fortune, rank, and habits 
of thought are pledges and security for good conduct ? 
Laudatur et alget is emphatically the motto of a Roman 
Catholic gentleman in Ireland. Every body commends, 
and none, in the play of parties, seem disposed practically 
to assist him. 

For what objects is security sought by this course of 
proceeding ?—The State : why should a Roman Catholic 
be averse from the State, if the State do not molest him ? 
To what Court, or Prince, or form of Government can 
he turn his eyes ? To France, the common pillager and 
proud tyrant of its vassal allies ? Where on earth will 
he find so much beneficence of law as at home, so much 
clemency of administration ? Men must be driven forci¬ 
bly from the ways of reason, when they combine to 
any extent against our Sovereign and Constitution. Is 
it meant to consult the safety of the Church ? ' The ec¬ 
clesiastical establishment is as well fenced by law and 
by power, by opinion, and interest, as any institution 
that ever existed. To my observation, the establishment 

* , of 


161 


of the church in Ireland does not present a single point 
that betrays weakness, save only when it seems to make 
common cause with the crazy and defenceless system 
of coercion. If the church adopt this alliance, it may 
possibly invite the speculating opponents of the one 
to extend their indisposition to the other. Thus at 
present stands the church ; it enjoys an undisputed pro¬ 
perty, and advantages, which do not interfere with any 
party or opinion ; a further requisition is demanded, 
that about three-fourths of the people should be placed 
under restraints, in order to make security more se¬ 
cure, and to sanction what is undisturbed and undis¬ 
puted. Now t :is appears to me to be supplying a 
motive and stirring up an interest against the church, 
instead of affording it strength and protection. I who 
am a Roman Catholic ; who live amongst that people ; 
who pique myself on entering into their feelings; and 
who have no reason to claim an exemption from their 
prejudices ; even I pronounce, that the legislature would 
grossly abuse its duties and its trusts, if it could be 
supposed capable of suppressing or altering the esta¬ 
blishment. I have already, in the course of this work*, 
expressed my opinion, that, in the actual state ot pro¬ 
perty and manners, the existing distribution is the more 
suitable; and as to leaving the care of religion to the 
good sense of mankind, without superintendence of 
provision on behalf of the public, it is of too much 
import to the happiness of society, to be committed to 
our short-sighted and capricious improvidence. Every 
person knows the value of health, and the extent to 
which it is necesary to attend to small concerns, in 
order to preserve that valuable enjoyment; yet the wisest 

y of 


* Sec pages 27, 28 , 38, 3 q , 40, 


162 


of us every day squander those means, which depend 
upon our prudence and attention. I should as soon 
think of relying on the discretion of a ship’s company 
for the degree of cleanliness necessary to exclude con¬ 
tagious disease, as trust to the unassisted wisdom of 
mankind for upholding religion, the point from which 
civilization and morals commence, and where they ter¬ 
minate. I do not concur in opinion with the Arch-, 
bishop of Dublin ; but in the mitred credit and parlia¬ 
mentary honours of that Prelate, I can perceive a lustre 
shed upon the general cause of religion, and an aug¬ 
mentation of reverence and esteem to every, even the 
humblest pastor of every church or congregation in 
the kingdom. So long as Parliament shall continue 
to extend its protection to the church, which I presume 
at all times will be the case ; so long as it guards that 
respectable fahrick from the occasional indifference of 
its own members; it cannot, in the entire range of 
possibility, be affected by the favours, which have been 
conferred, or bv those, which hereafter may be ex¬ 
tended to the Roman Catholics. The law of the land 
has been at all times superior to every party in this 
country ; it was at ail times sufficient to protect the 
establishment p—by the Union it has acquired new vi¬ 
gour ; and thus reinforced, it becomes efficient beyond 
doubt, dispute, or question. The establishment at this 
day can have no occasion to lean for support upon this 
scheme of partiality ; its real safe-guard is the balance 
of property together with that of power, which issues 
from the former legitimately and fairly. When any man 
can shew me an inclination to depart from this order of 
things, or a probability that this preponderance will he 
subverted ; then shall I enter with him upon the propriety 
of devising fresh means of support, or of accommodating 

the 


t 


163 

the new and unforeseen contingency. As the Popery 
system stands at present in Ireland, it is incompetent for 
any purposes, except those of unnecessarily dividing the 
people, and dangerously irritating them ; by infusing 
arrogance into the one party* and discontent into the 
other, it renders both unfit for civil duties. These are 
something more* and those something less, than subjects 
should be under a well -tempered government. If. I were 
desirous to see a Roman Catholic party or interest pre¬ 
served and cherished in opposition to the general welfare, 
I should wish the excluding laws to subsist, as the only 
mode by which this entire people can be combined and 
rallied. Let us take the supposition of a Catholic inte¬ 
rest predominating in any count } 7 or borough 3 if the per¬ 
sons who compose this interest be admitted to competition, 
they will naturally divide among themselves ; if excluded, 
they will act as a compact body, and decide the return 
of members, whom they will influence. 

Another point of view yet remains, in which this 
matter may deserve to be continued with still greater se¬ 
riousness. A considerable degree of opulence is forming 
among the Roman Catholics.—The men of this day are 
engaged in the pursuit of wealth, but those of twenty 
years hence will be formed with the views and under the 

V* 

impressions of actual enjoyment. Will they be exempt 
from ambition in a state of society, and under a form of 
government particularly favourable to the growth and to 
the unfolding of that feeling ? That you can check the 
career of these men’s minds, is what I believe no person 
will venture to assert; and if you do not afford them ob¬ 
jects of patriotic and legitimate pursuit, they will cer¬ 
tainly employ themselves in a contrary direction ; if they 
do not come to be connected with the state, they will 
connect themselves with the enemy. It will not then be 

Y 2 as 


16 i ' 


as in th® contests of the 17th century, (when the conti¬ 
nental powers were otherwise engaged,) a question be¬ 
tween the discontents of Ireland and the undiminished 
power and energy of England ; that power will no longer 
be left at leisure ; these discontents will be more effica¬ 
ciously pointed, backed with greater vigour, and admi¬ 
nistered with more sagacity. Who can look without hor¬ 
ror and dismay, upon that which possibly may prove the 
grave of the British Empire? Who can see, without in¬ 
dignant feelings, the light and inconsiderate trifles which 
dispose to that catastrophe. I do not put these matters 
as a Homan Catholic ; there are various points of incon¬ 
venience which I should press, if I presented myself at 
this day as the advocate of that people. My remarks in 
this tract are directed to matters of general concern and 
imperial legislation. I shall reserve myself upon particu¬ 
lar topics, to another occasion ; if indeed any occasion 
can require again to revive arguments illustrated by that 
superior intelligence*, whose operations rather resem¬ 
bled the supernatural aid of inspiration, than human in¬ 
tellect or agency. I am the friend of the state, the cor¬ 
dial and enthusiastic lover of the British Empire. I offer 
these heads of observation, in which the state alone is 
concerned, and which any man who regards his country, 
or desires its settlement, even .although he should unfor¬ 
tunately labour under the infirmity of disinclination to 
this part of his fellow-subjects, must yet feel himself to 
be interested. Persisting in the incapacities upon Catho¬ 
lics, government will come to be so much occupied with 
the cave of keeping back this question, and preserving 
the public from being agitated by it, that the Protestants 
will be rendered completely cyphers. No other political 

discussion 

letters to Loid Kcnmarc and Sir H. Langrishe. 


) 


165 


discussion of moment remains, since the Union, to en¬ 
gage the attention of Ireland ; the Catholics, exercised 
continually by this, will become the centre of all activity, 
and will engross, or be rendered, the sole public mind of 
the country. 

Entertaining these views; and feeling what, if not 
already ascertained, is I think fully demonstrable, that 
the abolition of the incapacitating laws is the concern of 
the country, in the most extended import of that appella¬ 
tion ; that, far from promoting sectarian interests, it 
would rather tend to counteract and to impede them ; 
feeling that, if personal motives came to be weighed, 
those, who do not stand well with the Catholics, would 
have more occasion to rejoice in the completion of the 
measure than their friends and favourites. With these 
thoughts present to my mind, and regarding the matter 
under these aspects, wherefore, it will be demanded, do 
I strenuously urge and desire this abrogation ? Because 
my attachment to the Catholics is not as to an indepen¬ 
dent state or distinct people, but a part of the great com¬ 
munity of my country; because I do not merge the pa¬ 
triot in the Catholic ; because mv mind rises from subor- 
dinate partialities to the welfare and honour of the most 
respectable Empire that has yet flourished upon earth; 
to the Crown by which that Empire is splendidly repre¬ 
sented ; to the civilized world, in whose cause and for 
whose conservation at this moment it is gloriously con¬ 
tending. I wish to see the people of Ireland rescued 
from the hands, and placed beyond the gripe, of arro¬ 
gant and ignorant pretenders. I wish that no pretext 
should exist to diminish the energies of the state, by 
confusing the duties, and distracting the affections of 
the subject; pointing to the minor cares and considera¬ 
tions of a separate description, when the great good, 

and 


4 


166 


and common cause of all challenge the utmost effort of 
vigour and exertion. How long shall such a cause and 
such a people remain, as a sort of bonwn dm die him , 
which any man may occupy, and convert to purposes 
often vile and seldom warrantable ? I do not hesitate to 
avow inferior considerations which bring w r ith them a 
proportionable degree of value. It would be desirable 
that every man were sent to seek his own level in society* 
without assistance from the specious assumption of zeal, 
which generally is empty, still more generally unwise* 
and which may so easily be counterfeited. Wild that re¬ 
spects public tranquillity and decorum, will not look for 
relief from the bustling foolery of mock consequence, 
to the extinction of that excuse, which gives it some de¬ 
cree of currency ? When shall the friends of the esta- 
blished religion be brought to understand, that a prepa¬ 
ratory academy for jacobinism, in the heart of the me¬ 
tropolis, is of more dangerous import to their favourite 
object, than the admission to Parliament of a few gentle¬ 
men, (probably not five at the present day, and not 
twenty at any one time for half a century) vrho must be 
too strongly impressed with the principles of property, 
to brino; to their elevation a mind hostile to the civil rights 
of the church, and who, if they did bear that mind, 
could produce no effect, overpowered so immensely bv a 
different temper ? Let me not be understood to imply, 
that recent proceedings, to which I may be supposed to 
allude, are actuated or managed by any design, or to 
any purpose of sedition. I contemplated he effect upon a 
populous town, of a discussion, which applies more to feel¬ 
ings of men than to their interests, and which floats indis¬ 
criminately through all ranks and classes ; I contemplate 
the enthusiasm that will be excited ; yet more obstinate 
than enthusiasm, the self-sufficiency that will arise; the 

habits 


167 


habits of political intrigue and combination upon matter*, 
of remote concern. When these shall have advanced to 
a certain consistency, the concession will come too late 
for the repose of the country ; concession only serves to 
inflate and stimulate, but never lias appeased, officious 
vanity. Tt is not easy to reduce persons to the limited 
cares and agency of private affairs, who have been taught 
to regard themselves important and formidable to their 
rulers. As an Irishman, 1 should prefer the existence of 
the restraining laws, rather than seek relief from them 
as a Catholic, by the means of popular activity and 
enthusiasm. 

Catholic claim, in fact or in expression, is at this 
day, revolting to my sense of duties and relations, and 
conveys an idea in no wise commensurate to the object; 
it seems to circumscribe one of the most comprehensive 
concerns of the British state, as though it appertained 
alone to the members of one class, and depended solely 
upon their exertions; it reduces to the semblance of a 
partv question, that which is the cause and interest of 
Ireland. Catholic claim—as well might the settlement of 
Canada be called a Catholic claim, or as well the revival 
in any province throughout France of its accustomed ha¬ 
bits. The first impression would, in either instance, be 
made upon persons of that religion, and the effect 
through them be transmitted to society. If properly un¬ 
derstood and judiciously conducted, it is the claim and 
cause of Ireland ; it is the cherishing legitimate hopes ; 
the extinction of intruding pretensions; it is the dignity 
of rank and equilibrium of property. What man em¬ 
barked in the welfare of Ireland, and bound to it by the 
ties of fortune or establishment, can calmly look on, 
and imagine himself unconcerned in the final disposal of 
this extensive head of obligation and interest ? Can you 

behold 


168 


behold a vast accumulation of wealth and influence cast 
aside for the purpose, and set to form the matter of fu¬ 
ture discontent? It may probably be laid down as an in¬ 
variable rule in politics, that nothing ought to be pre¬ 
served, which cannot be justified to the subject, or which 
is not worth the trouble of enforcing ; the first supplies 
the basis for a dominion of opinion; the second for that 
of force; neither stand the application in the instance 
before us. Our constitution of government confers pri¬ 
vileges, which are constructed for popular use, and of 
which the tenure is popular enjoyment; certain of these 
advantages, it is said, are not with propriety to be com¬ 
municated to the Catholics; the argument goes to the 
abolition of such institutions. The Catholics are too 
much the people to be thus set apart from what apper¬ 
tains to that description. It is a preposterous solecism 
to speak of popular franchises, without popular partici¬ 
pation. If unfortunately there existed a necessity to 
resort to that expedient, the proper mode of meeting the 
situation would be to simplify the monarchy .—Deposit 
with the crown whatever docs not suit the people. u The 
Catholics are not fit for such and such things; ” a fortiori f 
such things ought not to be held in their name and to 
their exclusion. I do not accede to the arguments by 
which the exclusion is attempted to lie sustained; but 
what I have stated is the corollary in which they termi¬ 
nate. If the supporters of the doctrine be right, the 
franchises ought to be suppressed ; if wrong, the princi¬ 
ple ought to be abandoned. 

But powerfully confirmed and rooted in expediency 
and in policy ; waving not a tittle of prudent and politi¬ 
cal right; if required to abandon the strong and elevated 
ground, on which I am placed, and to enter upon the 
busy scene of political activity, I would pause to survey 

my x 


169 


my motives and my means, and to apportion to both my 
exertions. I would consider, whether the movements 
suggested to me, however satisfactory and flattering to 
my private views, were adapted to the relative circum¬ 
stances and situation of the people, whom I presumed to 
personate. I would not be ready, at the summons of 
every, or of any rash, speculatist*, to engage where 
the body, with whom I am connected, never can be 
more than an humble and not an honoured instrument. 
In their own sphere of action, political parties are re¬ 
spectable and useful, but it never can answer a salutary 
purpose to annex to any such the Roman Catholics of 
Ireland ; hitherto they never came in contact with a politi¬ 
cal party, hut to their misfortune. As little suitable to 
political parties is the alliance of a people, too widely 
extended, and too much diversified, to be easily or 
safely moved or managed. Far be it from me to advise 
that my countrymen should with-hold their approbation, 
their gratitude, some of their best and warmest affec- 
tions, from the guides and luminaries of the state, who 
have discerned the intimate connexion subsisting in their 
case between patriotism and justice ; but if urged by the 
surrender of their own respect to bid for that of any 
persons whatsoever, I answer, No—Let parties come to 
Ireland, never let Ireland supplicate at the knee of 
party—maintain your own ground, and you will be¬ 
come the umpire of political controversies. 

Pursuing the same train of candid deliberation ; re- 
sisting the impulse of vanity, which here is more se¬ 
ductive than avarice ; refusing to become the tool, and 
as he necessarily must be, the low and subservient tool 

z of 

* Inquiry into the causes cf discontent in Ireland ; a tract in which 
considerable talent is displayed, with the greatest possible neglect of in¬ 
formation. 


v 


170 


of other men’s ambition, the reflecting Roman Catholic 

r 

would still proceed; those, for whom he engages, 
possess at this day, and exercise, with advantage to 
themselves and to the country, vast and splendid pri¬ 
vileges ; he would not insulate himself within his own 
little subdivision of society ; he would call to mind the 
feelings, which he ought to entertain, as a man, a sub¬ 
ject, and a citizen ; he would not assume, as a standard 
of gratitude, that rule, which is only to be approved 
when it is a spur to exertion, and a corrective ot indo¬ 
lence *; he would revolve deeply and seriously in his 
thoughts those circumstances, connected with his cause, 
which seem to give to dignified forbearance a preference 
above assertion, and to recompence the suspension of 
pride by the grace and lustre derived from the exalted 
principle that prompts him to restrain it; he would be 
the more inclined to adopt that course of forbearance, if 
it were a compliment to feelings, which he must revere, 
and to interests, which he never can cease to value; if it 
were a pious tribute of affection and duty to a benignant 
monarch; if with reference to the delicacy of the con¬ 
juncture, and to the irritation of the public mind when 
this subject happens to be discussed, the conduct would 
appear considerate; and if he were not called to depart 
from it by any new and pressing exigency. The ex¬ 
ample and converse of our fellow-subjects have taught us 
indignantly to repel their assumption of dominion ; yet 
were the burden more intolerable, were the means of 
redemption less ambiguous, we should make of them an 
unreserved and voluntary oblation at the feet of a paternal 
sovereign, by the bounties and blessings of whose reign 

O' J o o 

we are surrounded ; this is not humiliation, it is senti¬ 
ment. 


* Nil actum reputans si quid superesset agendum* 


171 


/ 


ment, and converts the chain with which lam aggrieved, 
into a badge of 1 03’alt)' and honour. Not a man 011 
earth, who feels a congenial impulse, and is alive to the 
merit of generous sensibility, will with-hold his suffrage, 
his esteem, his cordial co-operation from a people, 
whom that consideration influences to that sacrifice. 
Were I to proceed on the coldest calculations of pru¬ 
dence, they would bear out the propriety of my counsel- 
but prudence is the virtue of other moments and situa¬ 
tions ; a people should not calculate, but act upon its 
own ardent and disinterested impulse. Loyalty is the 
expansion of filial reverence, and who will refuse to the 
doubts and difficulties of his Prince, the kind considera¬ 
tion he would cheerfully offer to his parent ? You are 
the descendants of men, who formed a mercenary army, 
that from their scanty pay they might contribute to 
the subsistence of their exiled sovereign ; nation of gallant 
hearts and refined sympathies, it is not in your name 
or on your behalf, that a thorn should be planted in that 
Crown, which for above forty years has been worn for 
your advantage ! 

f have been led to this point of remark, delicate 
indeed, but interesting, which it is impossible to over¬ 
look, and difficult to proceed on 3 yet there is a sort of 

* 

affected preciseness in not noticing, what is in the mind 

and on the lips of every individual, that, after a series of 

concessions, which conspicuously denote the benignant 

inclination of the royal mind, doubts have arisen as to 

the yet unconceded privileges, tending to no small degree 

of perplexity between the difficulty of assent and the 

ungraciousness of refusal. When we direct our views 
o 

to the protective- influence under which the people during 
nearly half a century has been sheltered and cherished, 
to the prosperity which Is the growth of that period, 

z 2 ^ and 


1 


7 Jf* 

I l o 

and almost the donation of that influence, it becomes 
impossible to mistake the mind, to which these things 
are ascribable. The same inclination of feeling must 
have gone on to conduct the corrective system to its com¬ 
pletion, if the benignant course bad not been interrupted 
by what is easy to be removed, and has palpably been 
resorted to. At our very doors misrepresentations have 
been made, and a false colouring given to the unfortunate 
incidents that have occurred in this country ; it can 
scarcely be supposed, that a like imposition should not 
have been attempted, where it was more important; this 
probable presumption, and this alone, ean account for 
an alteration of opinion, as to the advantages which are 
least important, whilst those of infinitely higher moment, 
both with respect to their applicability, and the degree 
of power they confer, had been generously and unhe¬ 
sitatingly imparted. Favoured by distance of rank, and 
remoteness of situation, from the scene of action, fa¬ 
voured yet more by the misconduct of persons, who 
through intrigue or even through the fault of Govern¬ 
ment, became a sort of temporary leaders, and whose 
acts, a party in Ireland has never ceased assiduously to 
press and to exaggerate; we cannot be astonished that 
success to a certain degree attended the design. Patriotism 
will deplore the result, but candour cannot regard it 
with astonishment. 

If political influence on behalf of the Catholics is 
inconsiderable ; if opinion be their sole resource; if that 
opinion be not arrived at maturity, or rather if it has 
sustained a check, even where weight and example are 
most momentous, I should hesitate to invoke a decision, 
upon garbled and imperfect evidence, which has not 
yet been lairly and powerfully contradicted ; a decision, 
which to this country will be a signal tor virulent animo¬ 
sities * 


173 


-skies ; which w ould be received by one party as a defeat, 
by another as a triumph ; which would render the in¬ 
considerate on this hand more harsh and overbearing, 
and alienate the same description of their opponents in 
a crisis of danger and difficulty from the public interest. 
If I approach the doubts and delicacy of my King with 
reverence, so do I look with compassion on the infirmities 
of my country; I cannot see the propriety of agitating 
this matter by the means, which recently have been set 
on foot ; the machinery emploj’ed exceeds the value of 
the object. 

These are the sentiments of a private and unautho¬ 
rized individual, who does not desire to implicate any 
other person, and who claims for his opinion no pre 
tension of higher authority than what is derived from 
reason and from feeling. To insinuate a merit, or assert 
a singularity in sentiments, which, as they ought to exist, 
doubtless will be found to prevail very extensively, would 
be unjust and uncandid. What I express, is not the 
absence of feeling, but a temperate reserve under a full 
sense of inconvenience ; not passiveness, not phlegmatic 
apathy ; but a calm, and I trust, not dishonourable mo¬ 
deration. I hope to have evinced, that 1 am sufficiently 
alive to the civil and political situation of a Catholic. I 
bear my part in the taunts and contumelies that arise 
out of the discountenancing system, and perhaps am not 
■without a share in its privations. If my.equals suffer, I 
do not address them from a bed of roses. But feelings, 
which I should blush not to entertain, have neither so 
far transported nor confused me, that I should misappre¬ 
hend my means and my grievances. The Popery laws, 
as they exist at present, constitute an inconvenience, a 
strong and pointed inconvenience to certain persons ; lew 
in fact, but these few, the very men, who least deserve 

to 


/ 


174 


to snfF r ; when I come to treat of the propriety of an 
alteration of policy in this respect, I represent, that the 
matter is not of the slightest moment by way of safe¬ 
guard or superiority, for both are more effectually and 
less invidiously secured in the distribution ol property, 
and the Protestants, by a handsome concession, would 
confer that, which would be received as a compliment/ 
of kind condescension to the opinions or prejudices of a 
great and respectable portion of their countrymen ; I 
urge as motives of yet superior force, that a great and 
growing interest ought to be intimately bound and con¬ 
nected with the state, and the rising generation directed 
to constitutional pursuits and attachments ; I really could 
not keep my countenance, if I met any man willing to 
believe, that the peasantry of Ireland were ready to fly 
into rebellion, because half a dozen, or half a score of 
gentlemen, who do not themselves appear to take up the 
matter very urgently, are debarred from the possible 
contingency of a seat in Parliament. Without doubt 
there are parts of the Popery system, which extend their 
indirect consequences very widely in society ; yet with 
an act of Parliament in our hands, admitting Catholics 
to every legal capacity they can imagine, these conse¬ 
quences would not be affected, unless that people be 
able to conciliate the adverse mind, and by the example, 
or through the energy of Government, to repress its 
sallies or compose them. I rest with the greater earnest¬ 
ness upon this important, but I fear, unobserved, dis¬ 
tinction between the pride and solid interest of the Roman 
Catholics, from the recollection of two memorable oc¬ 
casions, in which the difference appears to have been 
overlooked essentially to their detriment. Earl Fitz- 
william seems to have miscarried in his project of improve¬ 
ment, bv beginning at the wrong end, and complicating 

his 


175 


his objects. It is not easy for those to judge, who stand 
at a distance from information and 'occurrences ; but if 
great statesmen, who withdrew from office in 1801 , had 
found it compatible to remain, by infusing their mind into 
the administration of Ireland, we should amply be compen¬ 
sated for the delay of their intended regulations. With¬ 
out question, the policy and justice of the Catholic 
cause have been highly complimented ; but we have paid 
for that compliment a ransom beyond its value, if it 
cost the exclusion from his Majesty’s cabinet of Lords 
Spencer, Grenville and Mr. Windham. 

Our want in Ireland is peace rather than privilege; 
our grievance is not so much, that restraining statutes are 
on the records of parliament, as that the existing Jaws 
are inoperative ; our privileges cover with tolerable ac¬ 
curacy our situation, if we were permitted to enjoy them 
without disturbance. The manners of the country mili¬ 
tate against its harmony ; acts of parliament cannot reach 
these manners, but the presiding and directing mind of 
the administrative power may ; it is therefore not to Par¬ 
liament, but to the executive authority, we must look 
for the settlement of Ireland. Applying itself with vi¬ 
gilance and energy, our government may compose our 
dissensions, and impart to every man the satisfactory 
enjoyment of a flourishing country and happy constitu¬ 
tion. I will shortly bring under review the actuui state 
of the restrictive statutes, in order more precisely to as¬ 
certain the questions, what we have to expect, and wtiere 
to place our dependence. The incapacities affecting the 
Roman Catholics, as they exist in name and letter, may 
be reduced under these heads: —Parliament and the 
great offices of state; the legal and military professions; 
the corporations; certain contradictions or omissions, in 
the several acts intended fer the relief of Roman Catho¬ 
lics, 


176 


lies, by which the affairs of private life are affected. The 
act of 1793 was designed to apply a general remedy to 
all the wants and inconveniencies of the middle situation ; 
but such was the intemperance, such the vanity, and such 
the incapacity of the persons, who assumed on the part 
of the Catholics*, the management of that transaction, 
that it passed in a form incongruous and incomplete, and 
several of its provisions are utterly repugnant to each 
other; some of these provisions are contrary to com¬ 
mon right, and all have so very little colour in policy, 
that if passions were suffered to subside, and the matter 
came to be calmly explained and investigated, a bill to 
remove doubts, and amend the act of 1793, could not 
possibly admit of a week’s delay or refusal. 

The corporations are placed on the footing of the 
reign of Charles II. that is a Roman Catholic may be¬ 
come free of any corporation, and vote for magistrates 
and members of parliament; if elected to a corporate 
office, he may exercise it, by the special permission of 
the Lord Lieutenant. 

A Roman Catholic Barrister may not hold the offices 
of King’s Council, Attorney or Solicitor General; but 
he may receive from the Crown, a patent of precedence, 
which confers all the advantages of the nominal office of 
King’s Counsel. The law offices have, in consequence 
of the Union, ceased to be the most lucrative situations 
at the bar, and he is eligible to those, which have re¬ 
tained their emoluments. The Bench is certainly a strict 
and unmitigated exclusion, The military profession lies 

under 


* The minister of that day, an English gentleman, could not possibly 
be conversant with the details of a subject, which was perfectly novel to 
him ; the Irish branch of administration either opposed, or reluctantly as¬ 
sented to, the measure; the heads of opposition, as they did not originate 
the matter, were not interested to render it perfect, 


•v 


177 

tindci some difficulties, on account of the difference bc« 
tween the laws in England and in Ireland: but here a°"ain, 
tempei "would be founo the best corrective; the necessities 
of the service and of the Empire would very soon either 
produce a change in the letter of the law, or render it, as 
has occurred in tne case of the Scotch Presbyterians, alto¬ 
gether obsolete; the statute law in England is equally 
strict against these, but no person thinks of enforcing it. 

There is not any set-off against the exclusion from 
Parliament, and from a few enumerated offices of state; 
but we have had already occasion to observe, that the 
former, in the actual condition of property, is not a 
grievance of very comprehensive extent, and the enu¬ 
merated great offices either have fallen, or are likely to 
fall, into disuse by the Union. I apprehend that, what 
is most felt as an inconvenience, is a matter collateral 
to the Popery Jaws, and almost accidental. Roman 
Catholics may not vote at vestries on questions relating 
to the repairs of the church or to divine service. In 
some parts where there are but four or five Protestants 
in the parish, this law’ gives them a power of taxation, very 
capable of abuse, and with respect to which abuses have 
been complained of; this circumstance might easily be re- 
gulatod, and it is not to be supposed, in any ordinary 
calmness of the public mind, that regulation would be 
resisted. 

This system and state of things, this remnant of an¬ 
cient prejudices unfortunately revived in our days with 
uncommon heat and exasperation, forms a strong case for 
amicable adjustment, but is not fitting, nor of sufficient 
magnitude, for an angry controversy ; those amongst us, 
who have the ambition to become leaders—those, who 
desire to display talents at the public expence, may find 
£ gratification in protracting the contentious spirit. In 

A a the 




\ 


178 

the assertion of their character, the Roman Catholics 
of Ireland have a very deep and serious interest; this 
concern is however, very much overlooked, and the peo¬ 
ple are endeavoured to be set upon political pursuits, by 
the success of which they have very little to gain, whilst 
all the miseries of national animosity are to be perpetua¬ 
ted by the failure. 

The cause in Ireland of popular uneasiness, the dis¬ 
content which really pricks to soreness in one class, and to 
desperation in another, ^arises not from the letter of the 
law, but from the practice and manners of the country^ 
Whatever may be the situation, whatever the pretensions 
of a Roman Catholic, there is a general disposition to de- 
press him as far as possible below his level. This strug¬ 
gle against the course of things, and against natural feel¬ 
ings is resented; it frequently assumes the shape 
of discontent; it more commonly tends to produce neu¬ 
trality. The lowest class of the people conceive, that the 
listlessness or the indifference of persons of property is an 
encouragement to enterprizes of innovation. The sound¬ 
est inclination to order and harmonv would be found, if 
they v : ere permitted to exert it, among the propertied 
Roman Catholics; but whilst they are kept in the back- 
~ ground, and reduced to neutrality, the most effectual and 
powerful restraint is removed from the light and irritable 
populace. There would be no combination among this 
latter class, if they discerned a strong spirit of resistance 
among the farmers; and there could be no combination, 
if the spirit of the farmers were directed and raised, and if 
they were on the alert to discover such movements and 
repress them. This is a short outline of the real cause 
- of disturbance in Ireland; combined with another cir¬ 
cumstance—the want of an outlet to the adventurous 
mind of the country, it will account altogether for, and 
point to the occasion of, the facility, v r ith which the. po¬ 
pulation 


pulation is directed against government and property. 
The most secure and settled parts of Ireland are those, in 
which the Roman Catholic religion is most universally fol¬ 


lowed, and where the predominant inclination to that re¬ 
ligion among the upper classes is such, that the middle aie 
permitted to act in their own sphere, and the lowest re¬ 
main in undisturbed subordination. Witness the county 
of Galway, where the superior property is in the hands 
either of Roman Catholics, or of persons of that connex¬ 
ion and interest. 

Matters not within the letter of any law, tacit and 
virtual exclusions are more painful than wnat l aihament 
authorizes. Let us suppose Parliament to take effectual 
steps, and place things on the footing of sober, sound, and 
equal legislation ; the bearings of power would not be al¬ 
tered by that proceeding ; the whole scope oi authmity 
might be under an opposite bias; the people are slid lia¬ 
ble* to be influenced by the ebullition of spleen and pee¬ 
vishness. The settlement of the country would not take 
effect, and its enemies would loudly accuse \Chat they 
would call ingratitude, and what they would reproach as 
evidence of immutable hostility, in men, whom all the con¬ 
descensions and munificence of the legislature do not pa¬ 


cify. Never was I more strongly impressed with any 
opinion, than that a legislative concession to the Catholics, 
unaccompanied by such circumstances as shall render i t 
the ground-work of harmony and settlement, would ra- 
thevbe an injury than an advantage; and there is not any 
thing which I more sincerely deprecate than such conces¬ 
sion, left, as was the last, to be enforced by accident. 
Unless the repeal of the restrictive laws be a peace-offering , 
it is not worth the acceptance. It is a matter of small mo¬ 
ment for the Catholics to receive, bat which would be gracious, 
wholesome , and conciliatory in the Protestants to opr. I 

A a 2 ' wlsh 


I 


180 


wish the concession to take effect; for the sake of the 
country anxiously and earnestly do I wish it; but then 
I wish it with a due contingency of advantage ; not as 
the triumph of Catholic over Protestant ; but as a pro¬ 
pitiation and atonement; as a regulation of state, and a 
token of cordiality. 

If required to state from whence this happy change 
of temper is to be expected, I reply, that calmness and 
patience may, and probably will produce that conse¬ 
quence ; but it certainly wall not arise under the revival 
of ancient heat, and the ungovernable impetuosity of 
popular proceedings. Where the prejudices that prevail 
in Ireland are not the effect of honest misapprehension, 
easily accessible to reason, intercourse and example, they 
are a sort of out-work for the monopoly of patronage ; 
so soon as it comes to be fully understood, that the mo- 
nopoly is hopeless, and that service and merit, whenever 
they occur, are likely to meet the encouragement that 
is due to them—antipathies, no longer profitable, will 
subside, and the settlement of the country will encounter 
little difficulty or obstruction. A country gentleman has 
not influence ever a petty constable ; a citizen of Dublin 
cannot procure (although the law admits of it) the free¬ 
dom of the corporation ; a Barrister has never attained 
an office so elevated as Commissioner of Bankrupts ; and 
you propose to relieve the feelings of these several 
descriptions, and to repair the deficiency, by rendering 
the latter legally capable to be promoted to the Bench, 
and the others to represent places in Parliament, where 
they seem almost to exist by sufferance. Passions and 
prejudices are the national evil and calamity ; the removal 
of the restrictive laws is a benefit so limited, as almost 
to be a private concern ; we may talk of our personal 
advantage, but surely not of the improvement of Ireland, 

under 


181 


under a nominal extension of capabilities leaving- the 
root of the evil untouched, and passions and prejudices 
where it found them ; on this view of our condition and 
necessities, I would apply myself to the Government; 
l would apply myself to the country; the one and 
the other will be reprehensible if they neglect the 
means of producing reconciliation, and establishing a 
permanent basis of harmony ; but should these bodies 
unfortunately overlook their duty, it is not for us to 
embark in a rivalship of error. On the ground of reason, 
the relief of the Roman Catholics is irresistible ; the only 
objections, that have as yet been offered, were taken 
from the proceedings of popular assemblies in this me¬ 
tropolis *. Will you relapse into this labyrinth of errors 
with the demagogues before your eyes, who cruelly 
and fatally misled you ? Favour to the Roman Catholics 
may be opposed, if it be made a requisition of popular 
enthusiasm) because popular enthusiasm is insatiable ; 
thus the persons, who profess themselves zealous, 
prepare' the only obstacle which is difficult to be sur¬ 
mounted. 

Towards 

* The City of Dublin is perhaps that spot in the kingdom, which is 
least adapted to the judicious and tempera!e discussion of this question. If 
I wished to attain a just and fair expression of Roman Catholic sentiment, 
there are circumstances which might strongly incline me to prefer the dis¬ 
tricts of Cork, Galway, or Waterford. 

Dublin is too much exposed to political intrigues, and the altercations 
which subsist between the Corporation and the Citizens, (in which the for¬ 
mer is uuiformly to blame,) occasion such a fretfulness of the public mind, 
as renders the latter very unfit to engage in deliberations, requiring, at least, 
address and prudence; I repeat, that the leaders alone are accountable for 
the proceedings of public bodies; but those Citizens of Dublin, who sub¬ 
mit to aggregate meetings, should recollect the dreadful effect of those, 
which in 1795 they were induced to sanction—they should recollect other 
proceedings in 1796 under the same influence, and the cistrusts and jealou¬ 
sies, which, originating from them, laid waste our provinces.. 


182 


Towards the latter part of Lord Westmoreland’s 
administration, the opposition to the Catholics was pro¬ 
bably reduced to less than a dozen persons. The first 
class of Protestants observed, that the crown had ingra¬ 
tiated itself at their expence with the people, and were 
not unwilling to retort, and to bid in turn for popular 
favour. The middle rank, as the Catholics were now 
advanced to an equality with themselves, were indifferent 
how much further they should be elevated. The Ca¬ 
tholics themselves had been led to the edge of a precipice; 
they withdrew from it appalled, and highly satisfied with 
their acquisition—a general calm prevailed. Such was 
the state of public feeling, when the fairest prospects 
that ever opened upon the Catholic interest in Ireland 
were blasted, and the condition of that entire people 
changed, from the most satisfactory they had hitherto 
enjoyed, to a state extremely the reverse, by the mis¬ 
chievous or injudicious intemperance of persons, who 
represented themselves as favouring the measures of a 
political party, under the unfortunate administration of 
Earl Fitzwilliam. In the summer of 1794, a represen¬ 
tation (as I was at the time assured by a nobleman con¬ 
cerned in the transaction) was forwarded to the British 
government, under the signature of the leading interests 
in Ireland, to recommend the repeal of the subsisting 
Popery laws. This was the result of forbearance ;—the 
same persons, a few months subsequent, when this mea¬ 
sure was connected with the overthrow of their political 
influence, made opposition to the Catholic question their 
rallying point, and conjured up a storm of angry pas¬ 
sions, which have ever since proved fatal to the repose 
and happiness of Ireland. I do not say that these per¬ 
sons were innocent or right, but assuredly upon us falls 

the 


183 


the penalty. I shall reserve to a moment of greater pri¬ 
vate leisure, the appropriate discussion of this subject. 

Another fact will tend to prove to the people, the 
extent to which they have been trifled with, and will 
add one instance to the many, which instruct the grea^ 
in the solidity of popular inclinations, and the value of 
popular appearances. A tender was made to the Earl 
of Westmoreland, that he should be drawn through the 
streets of Dublin by that mob, which a few months after 
bestowed their acclamations upon Earl B'itzwilliam. Hav¬ 
ing had occasion to allude to this noble person, I may 
be permitted to say, that I never can mention Earl 
Fitzwilliam, but with respect due to his rank, his vir¬ 
tues, and his patriotic intentions towards this country ; 
intentions, which probably have fallen short of the 
lustre in which they ought to appear, because the purity 
of them was not equalled by the accuracy of local in¬ 
formation. 

I repeat my earnest exhortation to leave this matter 
in the hands of Parliament. Let it come in due season 
as an act of royal condescension ; let it serve to cement 
our confidence in the statesmen and legislative bodies 
of the empire ; let our own petty caballers stand aloof, 
and not intrusively mar what they are incompetent to 
accelerate ; even under more favourable circumstances 
than exist at present, I should hesitate, if I clearly dis¬ 
cerned an adverse bias, to compel a decision which might 
not easily be retracted, when the matter came to be 
beter understood, and considered more judiciously; I 
would not be induced to familiarize the Legislature, 
under which we have been recently placed, with the re¬ 
jection of direct overtures* from the Catholics of Ireland; 

I would 

' f Linqutret incerium quid , viso Thrasea rfo } patrts erant deertfuri. 


184 


I would not intrude upon the duties and prerogatives of 
Parliament. Where the special interest is feeble and 
i remote, where in fact the matter is more of regulation 
than concession, it is a concern which ought to move 
from the Legislature to the people, but utterly unfit to 
proceed in the contrary direction. It is for the people to 
be affected by immediate impressions; the province of 
the Legislator is to calculate remote consequences, and 
appear provident of futurity. 

It is time I should bring to a conclusion these tedious 
and desultory observations; they have, indeed, extended 
far beyond what 1 fancied or projected. Let me not be 
understood to propound the settlement which forms the 
main design of this Essajq in any other light than that 
of a collateral regulation. It does not so much consult 
the humours of the people, as offer a prop and security 
to the commonwealth amidst the perils hat assail it. 
Neither the affairs of their church, nor the condition of 
their clergy, are points to which the pride and impres¬ 
sions of the Roman Catholics of Ireland have been di¬ 
rected ; it would be unfair to represent the arrangement 
of these objects, as likely to produce or be considered a 
political accommodation; it is matter of public and 
common utility ; not, according to the usual application 
of these terms, a Protestant or Roman Catholic, but an 
Imperial and an Irish, question. The persons, who 
desire to retain an ascendant over Roman Catholics, must 
still wish this people to be fit for government; those who 
cannot be reconciled to admit the gentry to the character 
of equals, at least will not object, that the peasantry 
should be cultivated to a reasonable extent, and disposed 
to subordination. 

In any description of the Roman Catholics, it would 
be a perverseness which I do not expect, and to which 

I certainly 


185 


I certainly should not subscribe, to witli-hold their con¬ 
currence from an arrangement of universal expediency 
and use, on account of certain unliquidated claims which 
are not allowed, very probably because the nature, 
justice, and extent of them are not comprehended. In 
fact, the Catholics are not much more than nominally 
concerned in the scheme we treat of. At the present 
moment, the faults and foibles of the lower orders con¬ 
stitute a principal ground of accusation against the 
Catholic public ; upon the turbulence of those, suspicions 
are founded ; upon it jealousies are justified ; by it per¬ 
sons remote from the scene of action, or otherwise liable 
to imposition, are filled with disgusts, and disinclined 
both as to the persons and political interests of this branch 
of the Empire. If the improvement in the condition of 
the Roman Catholic clergy be calculated to act upon this 
turbulent and inflammable mass of the lower rder, the 
concern must indeed be near and valuable to persons, 
in that communion, of property and pretensions ; “ these 
are more intent on other measures, to which no advance 
seems immediately to be made by this proceeding— 
granted; yet, will they be gainers, if prejudice be 
allayed, and an amicable adjustment facilitated with their 
fellow-subjects. Doubtless, it would be most desirable 
to set on foot a grand and comprehensive review of all 
the necessities of the country, involving at once, and 
revising lay and clerical concerns; but the institution 
before us is a matter in itself of substantial and inde¬ 
pendent good, such as ought to be entered upon and 
accomplished, although it happen not to be accompanied 
by another measure of ultimate perfection. If any man 
could suppose a thing so improbable, as that the inca¬ 
pacitating laws were to continue on their present footing 
for a century, the Roman Catholics still have an immense 

b b stak^ 

C 


186 


stake in the constitution and property of Ireland. Spar~ 
tarn nactus es , hanc exorna. I should think it just as rea¬ 
sonable to reject an overture for constructing commo¬ 
dious roads, or cutting navigable canals, because the 
Penal Code has not been finally abolished ; as to postpone, 
until the same desirable event shall take place, the care 
of religious instruction, the ease and application of 
functions, which are at once of the first necessity and 
of the last importance. 

i 

Something remains to be observed, on the degree 
of exertion and the opinions manifested during our late 
disturbances. It would indeed be a strange perversion, 
if under any unfortunate fatality ; if under any circum¬ 
stances of rejection, misguidance or provocation, a Chris¬ 
tian priesthood of any description could have abetted 
these profligate and incoherent conspiracies. When the 
politics of Europe began, towards the year 1790 , to 
animate that hitherto inert mass, the Catholics of Ire¬ 
land, their clergy manifested dispositions the most ad¬ 
verse to whatever bore the aspect of Democracy or Revo¬ 
lution. No man ever possessed so much ascendant over 
the Kiberno-Catholic clergy, as Edmund Burke; and, 
if the slightest management had been employed, his senti¬ 
ments would have decided every individual amongsttbem. 
But in almost all parts of Ireland no sooner did symp¬ 
toms of turbulence appear, than war was immediately 
denounced against this priesthood. If they contributed 
to support the cause of public authority, the service was 
accepted with chilling indifference; if an individual 
erred, the fault was trumpeted forth with the like wis¬ 
dom and address, which we have already observed, in 
the case oi the laity, and as if it was anxiously desired 
that the example should be imitated. I have traced 
through a progressive decline, the impaired sanctions 

and 


187 


i 


and diminished influence of religion ; it was incompetent 
to awe a people impelled by so many circumstances as 
acted upon them previous to 1798. The priests however, 
would willingly have exerted themselves to pacify their 
people, but they were stunned by the rapidity of events. 
The emissaries of the republican cabal, incessant and in¬ 
genious in their activity, drew off the congregations and 
left the pastors in a perplexing choice of difficulties. On 
the one side Was inclination, but neither protected nor 
countenanced ; on the other was the concern of their 
personal safety, and all the feelings and considerations 
which imperceptibly move opinion, and change the bias 
of character. The Catholic clergy depended for sub¬ 
sistence upon that people, whom they were expected to 
restrain, and to oppose in headstrong humours, which 
had now reached beyond the power of influence ; they 
depended upon that people for more, for those flattering 
tributes of estimation and reverence, which most men 
prize above their personal convenience. The very foh 
lowers, who heretofore approached this order with affec* 
tionate respect, on the present occasion fiercely repelled 
their counsel, and even- menaced them if they should 
venture to persist in the repetition of it. I should wish 
among our outrageous loyalists, to find those, who are 
ready to exchange a condition of considerable deference 
and comparative ease, for indigence and contumely; 
the pecuniary sacrifice is little, compared to the feelings 
that will arise in the bosom of a man, who sees his credit 
likely to be destroyed with the only persons on the earth 
by whom he was caressed and considered. Whilst the 
services of this clergy were imperiously required, and 
their inactivity made the subject of complaint, these 
services, when they were tendered, were often received 

ji b 2 with 


188 


with distrust, often rebuffed, and sullenly rejected*; there 
was no cheering countenance, no encouragement to a 
Popish Priest from the magistracy. I cannot then con¬ 
sider it extraordinary, that so many appeared irresolute 
and inert; of instigating the people they were certainly 
altogether innocent;—the name of a single priest does 
not appear in either the banishment act, or i,u that for 
outlawing persons who did not surrender to justice. It 
was not until late in l'797, that under the circum¬ 
stances I have described, they seemed to adopt a 
systematic neutrality. Another matter requires to be 
noticed, which will further tend to explain their situation 
and demeanour. 

The habitual turbulence of our southern peasantry 
manifested itself about the year 1785, by many formi¬ 
dable acts of violence. The volunteer armament had 
for some previous years repressed this disposition ; but at 
the same time, the conduct of the Volunteers tended 
very much to destroy the principle of acquiescence in 
the order of things established. The subject was taught 
to dictate to his superiors ; idleness became prevalent in 
the middle ranks, together with an arrogant and dis¬ 
gusting assumption of superiority in the tradesmen over 
the peasant, blending frequently, with what never fails 
to be in Ireland the consummation of all contests—the 

dif- 

* I am acquainted with one instance of a Roman Catholic Priest" 
having carried a dispatch for a general officer, when no other person 
could venture without an escort to traverse the country; with a se¬ 
cond instance, where a Priest volunteered to guide a detachment of the 
guards through a part of the country, with which they were utterly 
unacquainted; and with three or four cases of intended risings disco¬ 
vered and prevented. These persons neither sought nor expected reward: 
but it h$s occurred to me to know, that harsh treatment, in the course 
©f the troubles, fell to the lot of some of them. It would be incon¬ 
venient to die individuals to specify particulars. 


I 


189 

difference of religion. Political institutions were ini* 
peached at Dungannon, taxes and commercial regula¬ 
tions in Dublin : every corps produced its village states¬ 
man, who reiterated with the petulance of vanity, and 
the warmth of enthusiasm, whatever project had been 
promulgated under the name of liberty from the me¬ 
tropolis. Can we question, that the abuse * of political 
discussion during the American war, and for a few 
years subsequent, is sufficient to account for the errors 
into which Ireland was plunged, and even for the crimes 
which followed from them ? The lessons found a more 
extended audience, and more apt disciples than probably 
had been expected ; the common people at that period, 
seeing grivances, infinitely more fanciful than their own, 
urged with indecent vehemence, so soon as the force 
which kept them in awe was dispersed, became tumul¬ 
tuous. 1 refer to the rising which took place in 1735. 
The influence of the priest was immediately recurred to, 
and as the impressions of gratitude were recent, and 
the feeling of cordiality on all sides pretty strong, it 
was freely and honourably exerted. The priests came 
in consequence, to be mingled with other charac¬ 
ters, obnoxious to the multitude ; but the difference at 
the wflnding up was very considerable ; the other bodies, 
who had been attacked, were favourites of the ruling 

power ; 

* I have always considered thepoliticsof the Protestant gentry of Ireland, 
to have been very much influenced by this circumstance. Mr. Locke s trea¬ 
tise on Government is one of the text books of the University of Duuiin, <>nd 
upon it the minds of the Irish youth were very much formed down to the 
French Revolution. The errors of that great writer having been placed in a 
conspicuous point of view by that event, and by the democratic discussions 
at home, a gentlemanof the University, it would seem officially, undertook 

a new edition with notes, designed to qualify the dangerous opinions which 

» 

formerly passed, current under academic sanction. 


1 90 


power ; their zeal was commended ; special laws werd 
enacted for their protection ; no notice whatever was 
taken of the Catholic clergy, either collectively or as 
individuals: They suffered very much in the estimation 
of the people whom they opposed, and derived no ac* 
cession of countenance or kindness from the government 
or the gentry. Their credit was shaken to its very 
foundation, and they were left without support by the 
parties for whom they made the sacrifice. The sense of 
duty must be stronger than the ordinary feelings of human 
nature, if on the recurrence of the like occasion, they 
were ready to involve themselves in a repetition of the 
like neglect and injury. 

Yet, unquestionably, many felt and obeyed this 
sense of duty ; they urged and exhorted their flocks to 
submission and tranquillity, even under the cruel and 
ignominious discouragement, which the obloquy, thrown 
upon their body since the rebellion of 179S, affixed in¬ 
discriminately to every individual. It would be revolting 
to candour, to reason, and to probability, to insinuate, 
that there was nothing of lenity, nothing of crime, no- 
individuals, in any point of view, reprehensible, in a 
body of above two thousand men, of various views 
and passions ; many of them indigent, almost all de¬ 
pendant ; so much solicited on one hand, so much 
neglected on the other ; thrown by their habits and 
sympathies amongst these classes of men who were most 
eminently provoked, and upon whom seduction was most 
powerfully practised ; but the esprit ck corps is that 
which is material to come at, no body of men can answer 
for all their members. What was the example of the 
chiefs ? What were the outlines of the collective cha¬ 
racter ? Except only the Roman Catholic clergy, there 
was probably not a profession in the kingdom, not a 

clas- 


classification, by which men are known or divided, of 
which some person did not seem to take a pride in 
having prepared or promoted the rebellion ; not any 
Priest was avowed or counted among the heads, and 
it any were led into the under plots, they shrunk from 
notoriety. I should be much surprised, if among these 
two thousand men, a few scattered individuals would 
not be found, who silently cherished a hope to improve 
their means, or even to extricate themselves from their 
engagements, amidst the confusion of a Revolution. 
I should be yet more surprized, if there were not any 
credulous enough to believe, that all was not wrong, 
that was prof erred or projected. Why should these be 
more exempt than others from infatuation and delu¬ 
sion ? Yet, if the vice and the weakness equally lurked 
in obscurity; if either, when they appeared, were even 
considered by the parties themselves to be disgraceful, 
it was very plain how the collective sense and deter¬ 
mination of the body ran, and what sort of awe was 
impressed upon the individuals. 

The statements which have already been given upon 
this subject, were calculated to support accusation, and 
justify calumnies ; they make no allowance for the previ¬ 
ous character of those who were guilty, or the hasty de¬ 
terminations against those who were accused. Degraded 
priests, who might well be expected to join in any mis¬ 
chievous combination, are brought to account against that 
order, from which they were outcasts, and from which 
they had been solemnly repudiated. Before the summary 
and hasty tribunals, acting with or without legal warrant 
during the provoked and precipitate intemperance of 

1798, conviction and punishment, much less accusation, 

% 

afford no certainty of guilt ; yet the one and the other 

are 


192 


are received as undeniable ground of imputation.* 
Mr. Murphy was known to have marched at the head 
of a rebel column from Wexford; the indignation 
excited was very just, so far as it applied to the in¬ 
dividual ; but it was extended with precipitate fury 
to the order of which he was a member ; his bre¬ 
thren, before they were heard, were condemned as 
accessaries. 

The habits and education of the Roman Catholic 
clergy' incline them strongly to subordination ; there 
does not exist any object besides his Majesty’s crown, 
to which their disposition to obey can be directed. It 
escaped very few of them, that irreligion was the 
predominant characteristic of those persons, who in¬ 
stigated the people to tumult, and required but little 
shrewdness to perceive, that under the dominion of 
Atheists, no form of Christianity was likely to flourish ; 
the Jacobins were competitors with the Priests for the 
favour of the congregations; they were a more active, 
a more cunning, and a more unprincipled class of 

men ; there cannot be a doubt, that if they acquired 

* 

with the people a certain influence, they would not bear 
these rivals near their throne ; that they would turn 
that influence against the priests, and by tales and 
surmises, by influencing the public mind with false or 
exaggerated representations, they would powerfully at¬ 
tack , 

* I should not express the sentiments I entertain of the transactions in 
1798, if I omitted to observe, that however unjustifiable the conduct of many 
individuals on the side of authority, there was great provocation to account for 
the part they acted. The enormous weight of crime, and the blame of all the 
vices that were let loose, and all the sufferings that were experienced in this 
country, lie upon the heads of the persons who set on foot in the north of 
Ireland, and in Dublin, a combination to overturn the Government, and who, 
by various impositions, drew the peasantry of other parts to abet them. 


tack, and probably overturn, the credit which they were 
ambitious of supplanting. I have seldom conversed 
with a Priest, who did not see this fact as clearly as 
I now represent it. It would be strange indeed, if the 
probable event of popular proceedings escaped the 
penetration of our Roman Catholic parish Priests. In 
the course of my little commerce with mankind, I 
have not elsewhere found a sweater mass of solid and 
practical good sense. It is the natural acuteness of the 
Irish character, improved by academic habits of early 
reflection, and sharpened by a most extensive knowledge 
of human nature. 



THE END, 


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